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We're going to meet this snake. We're going to get hands on. Ay. And then we're going to attempt to measure this beast. We may have a world record size snake. Okay, today we are in San Diego, California, and we're going to be working with Bruce the Wrangler. Ray, what does Bruce do? Bruce rescues and relocates all species of snakes across Southern California. He has thousands of different rescues under his belt, but we are going to be meeting a very special individual today. Now, this is going to be a bullsnake, which is a species often times misidentified for a rattlesnake. And we are going to get to find out whether or not Lady Drago, Yes. which is the snake's name,
is of world record size. Yes. To our knowledge, the world record for a bull snake is 8 ft 6 in. Drago is very close to that, so we could have a record on our hands. Now, if she is a record, we will have to let Guinness know. We'll kind of talk Bruce through that process, and if he officially wants to get that certificate and get it listed as a world record, that'll be on him. But today we're going to at least find out if she's close and maybe has that title. Maybe. I'm so excited. All right, let's go meet up with Bruce and get hands on with Lady Drago.
Dang, that's a big bucket for this snake. huge bucket. not a 5-gal bucket, boys. Oh my goodness. Wow. here. She's in. Okay. So she might bite. I don't know. Okay. Whatever happens, happens. I'm going to take the top off. Go ahead. I'll let you do the honors taking the top off. Oh my god, she's huge. Bro, are you kidding me? That is a huge bullsnake. This is incredible. is spectacular. Okay, I'm just going to go in for the like going to get her out of the container. We have a medical kit on standby. We do. Yes, just in case. Remember, non-venomous, I would never be reaching my hand into a bucket like this with venomous
snake. Look at that. That is a huge bull snake. Hi, baby. I'm going to let her down on so that she starts to get comfortable. Let's move the bucket. Let's see what she does. Oh, she's quick. Look at that. Okay, wow. We're getting her to stretch out. No problem, it seems like. Yeah. Oh, she's going to tag Ray. Oh, no. Yeah, she's looking at you. Oh, there's a hiss. him flat. Pushing him flat. No, no. does. Oh. Nobody She gape opened the mouth a little bit, but no strike. Okay, let's bring her this way. Let's see where she can go. Let me help bring her. Whoa. Oh, oh. Aye. Whoa. Oh, look at the hiss. Like this is the
classic Steve Irwin interacting with like a taipan right here where you kind of hold up the tail. It kind of aye. There it is. Look at that. speed. She got me. Did she? She got me. Yeah, look right there. Oh. She did. Faster than Coyote. Okay, we don't want to stress her out too much, but we did want to just show that defensive pose. Now, when it comes to large snakes in Southern California, this is not a species you typically would see out here. Correct, Bruce? Yeah, this is a bullsnake. We didn't know when we got her exactly that. She looks a lot like our San Diego gopher snakes. In fact, that's what I thought she was. It did take scale samples and a
DNA test to confirm that she is a non-native snake to California and why I still have her. I couldn't release this snake in California. It just wouldn't make legal sense and it wouldn't make good sense to me mentally um to put her back out into the wild where something bad might happen to her. So, it was either she would get euthanized or you have rescued her and she has now become an ambassador for showing people the difference between a snake like this and a rattlesnake. Correct? Correct. Yeah, so many people misidentify this particular species as a venomous rattlesnake just because
of that patterning is somewhat similar. But yeah, the biggest key difference is that is a straight line tail goes to a nice point and then Draco has a very small head in comparison to her body. Um so yeah, it's it's kind of one-dimensional head into neck into body. So again, not rattlesnake, but you know, if you only saw a small portion of that in your chicken coop. So, this is a completely harmless snake, except for the fact that I did get bitten. Check that out. And what I want to know right now tiny bite. That's the first time she's ever bitten
anybody? Okay. That's incredible. Yeah, it could be she's not biting me. Nope. She's totally good. I'm just going to wipe that off on my sock so we don't get it anywhere. Okay, so our next goal is to try to measure her. And we are going to concoct a trough system. Ray, you help me. Okay. We'll have Bruce has got the snake. Lady Drogo. We're going to move these like this. She Ouch. She doesn't like Coyote Peterson. There we go. Oh, came over? Great idea. Oh, kept her in. Hey Drogo. Hi buddy. Oof. That's danger zone. Yo. Oh. Almost got your microphone. Almost got my mic bit right next to my nipple. Not where you want
to take a snake, bud. Drogo, we're cool. We're just trying to find out if you're world record size. How's your nippy? I think uh she might gone We're good. What you got? Ray just got a little scrape. We're good. Did you get a tooth? Yeah, I just pulled a tooth out of my shirt. Really? Yeah. Check this out. You can see Look how pointed that is. You Jeff, you can probably get a good shot. It's right here on my thumb. I'll keep it still. Look how sharp Obviously the teeth aren't huge, but they're insanely sharp. And when she's striking so quick,
it's so easy to draw blood. I think I've got a little bit coming through. It doesn't hurt that bad at the moment. That's crazy. She got a tooth stuck in my shirt. It's important to note that snakes are constantly replacing their teeth throughout the course of their life. So dropping a tooth is something that's totally normal and not damaging to the snake. I think the trough is not going to work. So what we're going to attempt to do now is just use the rope method of draping the rope along the length of the snake's body so that we get a start point and an end point,
which will allow us to determine whether or not she is over 8 ft 6 in. It's all about like essentially moving this like about an inch at a time right down the spine of the snake. And the fact that she's not flexing or doing anything this is actually working. flexing. You're flexing? Well, yeah. is actually working perfect. Oh, I think I just pulled something. The current largest length that we know can you move your arm? Yep. I'm moving around. is 8 ft 6 in. Uh-oh, you're getting a snake call in the middle of the scene. No, you can't make this up. go to the snake. Hello, this is Bruce. Well, did I sorry we were incredibly busy yesterday. Did I get your address and everything?
Okay, so sorry. What happened there? Okay, what happened was got a call in the middle of the scene and this is as far as I got. So I was about a half an inch behind her head when she pulled her head backwards, so I lost the positioning. So we can do an a second attempt, but this is a 10 ft rope and we're already to here. This snake is more than 9 ft in length. Stop it. No. I don't know that we need to even measure any further. I want to get a second go with this, but let's measure where the rope is at now. I'll keep Drago under control. Okay, so what is the
Where I'm at nine right now. You're at nine. my thumb is on nine. Bro. this is we have not even measured basically the this spot on her neck. So an extra 3 in. I would safely say an extra 3 in. I want to do it a second time. Let's let's pull her back. Let's re-measure the string first. Let me Are you serious? No, serious? me a full measurement on the string. Okay. Just the string? Yes. String is 10 ft, right? Okay, want to make sure we didn't mismeasure on the string. Let's try this again.
She got me. It's okay. I'm this close. Nobody do anything. Just let me do what I'm doing. Pinch it. Yes. We got it. Okay. Let me put her back in Dude, great work. Okay. Slightly different result than last time. That's why I wanted to double check this. This is at exact This is right here where her nose was. Dude, okay. So this is still What do we got? You're killing me here. 8 ft 4 in. 8 ft 4. See, this is why you always double check this. I think we need to do a third one. Now that we've got a varying result, I think Can we do a final better to always be safe than sorry? How much blood do you have left in your
body? Plenty. Plenty of blood left. I want to do it one final time. I don't know if something happened there when I got bit and the and my hand moved on the string because there was definitely more two movement motions. We're going to do a third measure. Okay. It's about as close as we can call it without stressing her too much. I'm pretty happy with that spot right there. She did really good that time. She did great. No bites. And it looks like we are probably going to be close to what we just were. So let's let's get the measurement. Hey Drago. We're cool. make a sweet thumbnail like this.
Oh my goodness. That is so intimidating. Really? Okay, let's put her back in the bucket so we don't stress her. We'll get her back out for the thumbnail. Okay, this is the spot exactly right there. About the same. at about the same. Yeah. 8 ft 4 in. think our first measurement because of the big jump, she's not over 9 ft but she is at 8 ft 4 in. I'm still pretty thrilled. she's 8 ft 4 in. So she's right in that realm. Again, this is a measurement. When it comes to measuring animals, it's very difficult. It's why we can't definitively say this is a world record
size. There's a huge difference when you think about the accordion nature of a snake's body. The fact that we are getting now two consistent measurements at 8 ft 4 in, it is quite possible that she's longer than that because if she was completely relaxed and a lot of times when they establish a record for a snake, it ends up being a snake that is dead, meaning that its muscles are completely relaxed and they can stretch the body as far as possible. So Bruce, I would say unofficially that snake is likely the living world record for a bull
snake. That is absolutely wild, dude. And you had to take how many bites? Uh quite a few. I got one like right on the nipple. Four bites. Yeah. 8 ft 4 for four bites plus one. Plus one. Man, that was insane. Thank you guys for helping me discover what she really is. Dude, it is a special snake. And once again, for everyone out there watching to understand why Bruce has the snake in captivity, had he not rescued it and made it an ambassador for people understanding snakes in their backyards, Lady Drago would have had to be euthanized. And while
she is a little aggressive, which is natural because at one point she was a snake in the wild and who knows for how long, it's completely fine that she keeps that demeanor. That demeanor keeps her a predator. Now, if you were to want to establish this snake as a true world record, what we could do is bring Guinness out here, use all the proper techniques to be able to get that length. But for everybody out there watching, I think it's safe to say that Lady Drago is the largest bullsnake that anybody has on record at the moment. All right,
there you have it guys, the unofficial measurement of Lady Drago pushing world record size. Bruce, truly epic. Did you have this incredible snake? Stay tuned guys because over the next few days, Ray is going to be shadowing Bruce, headed out into Southern California to rescue snakes. This is going to be epic. I'm Peterson. Be brave, stay wild. We'll see you on the next adventure. Man.
