Winners of snake contest...!

That's right, winners as in plural!

It was actually a pretty big snake.
Since people always over estimate snakes they've actually seen, I guessed a conservative 5 feet to myself.
I couldn't help notice how its pattern changed from anaconda like blobs at the back end, to more typical bull snake patterns at the front.

So how do you measure a snake without killing it?

Last weekend I went back with printouts of my snake pics, a long cord, and an extending tape measure (25 feet long, just to be sure!).
After a little while finding the exact spot, I laid out the cord (which used to work our blinds before they broke and needed fixing), adjusted its wiggles to match the snake's position exactly, picked up the string and measured it.

It was a bit tricky finding the exact placement at first, but I noticed as I was matching tufts of grass and stones that there was a groove worn in the ground, so either the weight of the snake did that in one pass, or it's a regular route it takes.


The string was 6ft 3inches, or 75 inches.

So I've been saving emails and making notes on who was within 2 inches either way, since I reckon I might have not been super exact.

I had guesses ranging from less than three feet to more than nine!
Quite a spread.
What really amazed me was that not only did someone nail my exact measurement, but a whole bunch of people guessed within my self imposed margin for error.

Sara J Ingle got it on the nose!
Congratulations Sara, you've won a little bronze turtle!
Best email me your address (no impostors please!).

But I felt it wouldn't be fair not to give the others who were so close a shot at a prize too, so I assigned each either odd or even status, rolled a dice to eliminate half so the numbers were small enough for a single dice roll, re-numbered everyone who was left and bingo, number four it was.

So Norma Evans is the bonus winner!
She emailed her guess of 75.5 inches.
I'll send a bonus critter your way Norma (might be a tiny bunny!)

Thanks to everyone for your guesses, that was fun!

I'll no doubt do something similar sometime, so stay tuned (or just sign up for monthly email alerts. At the start of each month you'll get the last month's posts, and also any contest alerts. There's a link in the sidebar if you want to sign up).


Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille