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My home state of Florida spends a completely disproportionate amount of time on the news. There have been books written about why Florida makes so many headlines and I won’t get into that here but I will point out that when you saw ‘Snake Orgy’ in a headline I’m willing to bet you weren’t at all shocked to discover that this went down in the Sunshine State.
According to reports, a portion of Lake Hollingsworth in Lakeland, Florida was shut down after there reported snake sightings. This tipped off the authorities that it was nearly time for the annual snake gang bang by the lake.
During the Florida Water Snake’s annual mating season things turn into an all-out Roman-style orgy with snakes just going at it in every direction. Here’s the scoop:
<blockquote.After residents began reporting snake sightings to the Lakeland Parks and Recreation Department, the department and the city's Public Works Department began investigating.
Turns out it's mating season for the Florida water snake, officials said, and a large group snakes have gathered near the lake for a giant orgy. Caution tape was put up around the area to increase public awareness of the snake orgy.
"It appears they have congregated for mating," the department said in a Facebook post. "They are non-venomous and generally not aggressive as long as people do not disturb them."
Once mating season is over, the department said the snakes should go their separate ways.
"They are an important part of the ecosystem and should not be disturbed," the department said, adding that these love gatherings are an annual occurrence. (via CNN)
I was born and raised in Florida and was in the Boy Scouts growing up where we’d spend virtually every weekend camping somewhere throughout the state. We were warned about dangers like rattlesnakes and bobcats, but somehow ‘snake orgy’ was conveniently left off the list of things to watch out for.
When I first came across this news I thought for certain that the local media had to be blowing it out of proportion but ‘snake orgy’ is certainly the most appropriate term to describes thousands of snakes showing up by the like to have a massive round of group sex. I can’t help but imagine the reaction of the first person in history who happened upon a snake orgy and what their reaction must’ve been. Surely they would have believed they stumbled upon the gates to Hell, right?
If you’re curious what something like this might look like, here’s an incident from a few years ago in another part of the world:
Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be spending the rest of the day wondering why I ever left NYC and moved back to Florida….