Lol, predictable response. It always gets to this weird point where the person who is offended they aren't being believed without proof questions your origin? That step never makes sense to me.
Yes, I'm from middle TN just west of Nashville just barely within cottonmouth range. I spent my formative years recreating in West and Middle TN, and occasionally in East - and my father was from Memphis then got a wildlife biology and fisheries ecology degree from UTK. I spent 4 years in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee earning my degree, where I spent every week on the water fishing from Nickajack to Norris or hiking in the mountains or plateau. Then I moved to Mississippi where I did two years earning my master's, doing fieldwork in the delta and spending my free time hunting and fishing on central and east MS public lands and waters. Now I live in Virginia, where I live just outside cottonmouth range. Again, where I spend any free time I have in the outdoors, because outdoor persuits is literally my life. I may have mentioned this before, but I was just published in the summer issue of a North American outdoors magazine.
Incredibly, I've easily seen cottonmouths within their documented range and never outside their documented range. Just like everyone else who's a herpetology expert.
Yes, I grew up here. Tennessee is my home, and I've flown the tristar and power T proudly wherever I've gone. Yes, I heard all the stories, myths, and rumors. Rumors, myths, and stories aren't evidence, and as I've already addressed the species we are talking about is the most misidentified species of snake on the planet. I've watched people I respect as outdoorsmen point to plain-bellied watersnakes and call them cottonmouths. I've watched people call queen snakes cottonmouths on Melton Hill, and common watersnakes cottonmouths on Douglas.
I've not once called you a liar. I don't think you're making it up. You 100% believe you saw a cottonmouth. I said you were in the least misinformed and would need to provide proof before being believed. That's how it works. I explained why it was so unlikely, statistically improbable if you will, that you saw what you thought you saw. Is there a chance? Yes. But you have to prove that to back it up. You simply cannot be believed by word alone because that's not how science works.
I don't claim to be smarter than you. But I do know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I am an expert in a handful of things because this is what I spend my life doing every day. I know more about this single subject than probably (because there might be another herpetologist somewhere in here) everyone on this board.
I would not be so foolish or arrogant as to think I knew more than you at the career you have. Because you're an expert in that work and I'm not.
