Ken Suarez of FOX 13 Tampa Bay reports a married couple from Bartow headed out for a normal birdwatching outing in south Polk County and ended up with the kind of story people tell for the rest of their lives.
Instead of spotting a rare hawk or a colorful wading bird, Suarez reports they came face to face with a huge diamondback rattlesnake that was hard to miss and even harder to forget.
Suarez describes it as a true monster, the “granddaddy or grandmommy” of snakes, and he admits right up front he doesn’t even know if it was male or female.
What he does know, and what the photos show, is that it was a whopper.
The Grass Started Moving
Suarez reports the birdwatchers were Cathy and Lloyd Terry, and he says they pulled off the road because something caught their attention.
Cathy told Suarez she looked down and saw the grass moving, which is one of those little details that sounds harmless until you realize what it can mean in Florida.
In Cathy’s words to Suarez, the only reason grass moves like that is “unless of course there’s a giant snake slithering through it.”
That’s the moment this turns from “nice day outdoors” into “every nerve ending is awake.”
Lloyd told Suarez he saw “this big thing going across the road,” and he kept it simple: “Big thing. Fat.”
You can almost hear the disbelief in that short sentence, like his brain didn’t have a better category for what he was looking at.
“Oh My Gosh, Look At The Size Of That Thing”
Suarez says Cathy was stunned, and she didn’t try to dress it up with polite language.
“I can’t even repeat what I said,” Cathy told Suarez, before describing the reaction she could share: “Wow! Oh, my gosh! Look at the size of that thing.”
Cathy told Suarez she got her window down, shouted some version of “get outta the way,” and started taking pictures.
Those photos, Suarez reports, show the size and girth of the snake in a way that words can’t quite capture.
Suarez says the estimate was at least six feet long, and he notes it could be “pushing a hundred pounds.”
Even if people argue the exact number, Suarez makes the point that it doesn’t really matter when you’re staring at it in real life.
Big is big.
Why One Step Could Have Been A Disaster
Suarez says diamondback rattlesnakes are native to Florida, and he explains what biologists often tell people: leave them alone and they’ll probably leave you alone.
But Suarez also warns that this situation could have turned bad if Lloyd had gotten out of the truck without watching his step.
He says the snake could have easily struck if someone stepped on it, and that would have been the snake acting in self-defense.
Suarez leans into the scary “what if” that a lot of viewers were probably thinking anyway.
“Just imagine how much venom this thing could inject,” Suarez says, warning it would be enough to cause “a whole lot of problems.”
This is the part where I’m going to be blunt: a big rattlesnake isn’t just a spooky animal. It’s a serious medical emergency waiting to happen if things go wrong.
And the worst part is you often don’t see them until you’re already too close, because they blend into weeds, sand, and brush like they were designed for hiding.
The Internet Wanted The Snake Dead
Suarez reports that once Cathy posted the pictures on Facebook, they went viral.
And once they went viral, Suarez says the comments rolled in – lots of them cheering the photos, but plenty of them demanding the snake be killed.
Cathy told Suarez that “probably a fourth” of the comments were people saying things like: you should have run it over, why didn’t you kill it, and even that it would make a great pair of boots or a belt.
Suarez lays that out without sugarcoating it, because that reaction is real and it’s common.
A lot of people panic around snakes, and instead of “how do I stay safe,” their first thought is “destroy it.”
But Suarez reports that’s not what happened here. Cathy and Lloyd let the rattlesnake slip off into the high grass and disappear into the weeds.
Honestly, that’s the part that impressed me most, because it’s harder than people think to resist the urge to “do something” when your heart is pounding.
But most of the time, the safest move is to back away, keep your distance, and let the animal move on.
Will They Still Go Birdwatching?
Suarez says he asked the obvious question: is this going to slow them down from being out in nature?
Cathy answered Suarez with a firm “No, not at all.”
But she also added something that feels like a lesson learned the hard way: it will stop her from getting out of the truck as quickly.
That’s a very “Florida” sentence.
You don’t have to be scared of the outdoors to respect it.
You just have to remember that the outdoors doesn’t care if you’re having a relaxing day.
Suarez later jokes about live shots usually focusing on his face, but in this case he wanted viewers looking at his shoes.
He says there’s a reason for that: he wanted people to understand the snake’s length compared to a human. Suarez explains he’d “like to say” he’s six feet tall, but he’s not—he says he’s about 5’9” on a good day.
And he uses that to paint a picture: from his toes all the way to the top of his head, the snake would still be longer.
That’s not the kind of comparison you forget, because it turns an animal into a measurement you can feel in your gut.
A snake longer than the reporter standing there is the kind of detail that makes people check their porch twice at night.
A Reminder: Not Every Big Snake Is A “Bad” Snake
Suarez also mentions that Florida has a native snake species that can grow even longer than what this couple saw.
He says that snake is the blue indigo, and he brings it up almost like a “fun fact,” but you can tell he doesn’t actually want to be the person who finds one first.
The anchor laughs along with him, and Suarez basically agrees: no thanks.
Still, Suarez making that point is useful, because it reminds viewers that Florida is snake country.
If you live there, or even if you’re just visiting, you can’t act like snakes are some rare freak event.
They’re part of the ecosystem, and they’ve been there longer than the roads, the houses, and the parking lots.
What This Story Really Teaches
Suarez frames this as a startling wildlife encounter, but the underlying message is about awareness.
Cathy noticed movement in the grass, and that tiny observation may have prevented a painful injury.
Lloyd saw the snake crossing the road, which means the couple had at least a moment to react instead of stepping into danger without realizing it.
And they stayed calm enough to take photos without doing something reckless.
If you want my opinion, the comments telling them to kill it sound like people who don’t spend much time outdoors – or people who spend time outdoors but treat every wild animal like an enemy.
A diamondback rattlesnake is dangerous, yes. But it’s also doing what it’s supposed to do: living where it lives, moving where it moves, defending itself if it has to.
If every big snake gets smashed, you don’t end up with a “safer” environment. You end up with a broken one, where rodents spike, balance gets weird, and humans still don’t pay attention to where they step.
That said, I get the fear. Not everyone has the nerves for it, and not everyone should pretend they do.
The reasonable middle ground is simple: respect the animal, keep your distance, watch your step, and don’t turn a wildlife encounter into a macho contest.
Suarez’s report ends on that note of realism. Cathy and Lloyd aren’t quitting nature. They’re not swearing off birdwatching. They’re not acting like the woods are cursed.
They’re just going to be more careful. And that’s probably the best “takeaway” anyone can have after seeing a diamondback rattlesnake big enough to go viral.
Because in Florida, the outdoors can be beautiful.
But it can also bite back, fast, if you forget you’re not the only one out there.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, John developed a love for the great outdoors early on. With years of experience as a wilderness guide, he’s navigated rugged terrains and unpredictable weather patterns. John is also an avid hunter and fisherman who believes in sustainable living. His focus on practical survival skills, from building shelters to purifying water, reflects his passion for preparedness. When he’s not out in the wild, you can find him sharing his knowledge through writing, hoping to inspire others to embrace self-reliance.
