The Western Coachwhip is part of a family of racers, and is known to be one of the fastest moving snakes in existence. I was wading down the Perdenales River in West Texas, and noticed a very fast-moving break on the smooth water surface. I immediately knew it was a snake by the way it looked, and bolted out into a flat run toward it. As the snake and I converged near the shoreline, he turned around and tried to head for deeper water where he would get away. But every time he would do this, I would grab his tail to stop him. And then, he would use this extra leverage to snap around and strike at my legs. Of course, I would let go of his tail and jump out of reach.

The snake and I continued this dance for at least a couple of minutes, until he figured out that he wasn't getting away. So he resorted to coiling up and striking whenever I got close enough. This prevented me from grabbing the back of his neck (safe way to hold a snake), until a nearby swimmer threw me a stick to pin him down with. After quickly immobilizing his head, I was able to get a firm grip on him, then photograph him and let him go ; )

As soon as my fingers (gently) closed around his neck, his whole body went limp. But his eyes continued to watch my every movement closely! He would move them all around when I made movements with the camera, it was pretty neat. As soon as the photo-shoot was over, I took him to a nearby open area and layed him on the ground. I quickly moved my hand back after letting him go, expecting him to come alive again and strike, but he just layed there feighning death. I came back 5 minutes later to check, and he had dissapeared into the forest.