OkcPets Magazine November 2023

18 OKC Pets • November / December 2023 domain, with bins and buckets lined up. In each, he creates an authentic animal habitat, including rocks, soil, water, mussel shells, wood, leaves, or whatever the animals would have in their natural habitats. Hudson’s list of wild catches includes a lot of snakes (some longer than he is tall), rabbits, mice, rats, moles, gophers, birds, baby ducks, four species of frogs, two or three species of toads, five or six species of lizards (including green anole lizard), a large skink, bullfrog tadpoles, scorpions, wasps, hornets, a 16-pound snapping turtle, various spiders, and a soft-shelled turtle 17 inches long. Hudson catches fish by hand, and that includes a three-foot-long carp. He once caught a wounded hawk and nursed it back to health. He also chases armadillos. When water fills flowerpots and toys on the porch, Hudson scoops up fish and tadpoles and puts them in the receptacles, where they eat the mosquito larvae and other kinds of larvae. “My favorite animals to catch are bull and rat snakes because they’re so big,” Hud- son said. “And also turtles, especially snap- ping and soft-shelled, lizards, and skinks.” Early on, Hudson’s parents realized his enthusiasm for catching everything, and they snagged a fourth-edition copy of A Field Guide to Oklahoma’s Amphibians and Reptiles by Greg and Lynnette Sievert. “The book has everything in it,” Floyd said. “It has range maps, habitats, photos and physical descriptions of all the ani- mals, foods they eat, habitats, life cycles, and species habits. Hudson is very good at identifying all snakes, including venomous snakes. He has caught a large number of Oklahoma’s snakes.” Floyd constantly quizzes Hudson on the book’s contents so he can identify and stay clear of venomous animals. “We’ve also trained him not to touch brown recluse spiders or black widow spi- ders,” Hudson’s mother said. “We’re also part of the Oklahoma Snake Identification Network Facebook page,” Floyd said. “I educate Hudson and keep him safe by teaching him venomous ani- mals. He immediately knows a venomous snake and immediately backs away. He has a rapid speed of identification, and he can immediately recognize different color varia- tions in snake species. He has an incredible memory. “This is science for Hudson. He loves the hunt and the mystery of what he’ll find. He is very fast, and his eye-hand coordination is extremely fast. Hudson’s hearing is amaz- ing. He has the ability to hear an animal that is barely making a sound. He can catch tiny animals and also huge animals. He is very patient, and he will wait and watch for a long time before catching an animal. He talks a lot while he hunts for animals. He can identify pretty much everything.” Occupational Hazards There’s a flip side to being a fearless young naturalist. Hudson has landed in poison ivy, but he gets only small rashes that disappear quickly. He has also been bitten by nonven- omous snakes, scorpions, spiders, wasps, and hornets. Hudson was thrilled when he got his first nonvenomous snakebite. And although he says the bites hurt, he doesn’t cry, and he is not fazed by bites except from a certain type of grasshopper. “There are big green grasshoppers with bright red eyes, and they bite, and I hate them,” Hudson said. “I don’t like their bites. I catch them and feed them to spiders.” At times, a herd of four to 20 deer gravi- tates onto the property. If Hudson emerges from the creek and the deer are on site, they stomp their feet and make noises, indicating that they are mad. He either freezes or races to the house, and they have not charged him but have left him alone. “He sometimes watches YouTube and na- ture shows about animals worldwide,” Floyd said. “He can identify snakes that are not in Oklahoma. This is an extreme passion for Hudson. I like it that he would rather be out in God’s creation, exploring the world and enjoying all that, rather than sitting in front of the television.” A Field Guide to Oklahoma’s Amphib- ians and Reptiles, from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, can be purchased online at https://www.wild- lifedepartment.com. After a search along the creek bed among trees and brush, Hudson Floyd finds a turtle. Banded garden spiders such as this are nonvenomous to humans, but their bites hurt, says Hudson Floyd.