“Is that for real?” one netizen asked, doubting their eyes. Another said, “This photo won’t make anyone want to visit South Carolina.”
Others were amazed by its size. “What a monster!” one exclaimed.
“Looks like something from the Amazon,” said a second, while a third simply wrote, “That’s huge.”
One person joked, “Probably ate somebody’s kid already. I’m not going on any trails, ever.”
Meanwhile, some cyberfans tried to ID the snake. “That’s a massive cottonmouth,” one guessed. Cottonmouths are super venomous vipers, common in the area along with copperheads.
But Sean Foley, curator of herpetology at the Riverbanks Zoo & Garden, said despite its scary look, it was a harmless water snake.