http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/herpetol/snake/snake2.htm
http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/9608.html
Cory Anderson: So how far up the hill is he?
Wayne Drda: Well he was about a third of the way up. It wont be all that bad. We can scan for him right away and see if hes gone. Hope he hasnt gone too far up the hill. Well bring the bucket.
Wayne: Alright, right through here
Cory: Sounding pretty loud.
NARRATOR: Wayne Drda and Cory Anderson are looking for snakes. And when they find them, they have to be very careful.
Cory: Is it set on the attenuator?
Wayne: Yeah, the gains way down too. Hes very close here. Looks like in that direction there.
Cory: I see him.
Wayne: You see him? Hes right there in that tangle of leaves.
NARRATOR: The Washington University researchers are studying Timber Rattlesnakes. A shy, but highly venomous resident of Missouris woodlands.
Wayne: Mid body 40.8.
NARRATOR: Radio transmitters allow them to collect data by tracking previously captured snakes.
Cory: I used to be terrified of snakes. What really changed it for me was going into the woods and looking for snakes. Once you enter into that mind set of going out and looking for snakes and studying snakes you see a side to them that is the antithesis of what you were taught to believe about snakes. You know something like a Timber Rattlesnake in its forested habitat is far from some sort of aggressive predator, you know its actually a pretty passive animal that wants to be left alone.
NARRATOR: Of course two questions may come to mind. How do you put a radio transmitter on a rattlesnake? And perhaps more importantly, why? The answers to both questions can be found at the St. Louis Zoo.
Jeff Ettling: You know its kind of neat when you are looking at what youve got here because you have West Tyson and Lone Elk and Castlewood and all that going on, theres good buffer zone around here. And thats really what needs to happen here.
NARRATOR: Curator of Reptiles Jeff Ettling has been studying Timber Rattlesnakes for several years. Both the Zoos study and the Washington University research are ultimately trying to answer the same question, can humans and rattlesnakes coexist.
Jeff: Well I think thats going to be the thing thats going to be important long term, for good buffer zones, and a lot of that is just going to have to be through education. You know if people are going to move out into these areas, theyve got to realize what they are dealing with. And the fact that the snakes are so passive and secretive and really dont want anything to do with people at all. Well I think as people have continued to move west and southwest from the St. Louis area, we decided it would be a good time to institute a project to look at, you know, where the snakes are moving to, how much habitat are they using, what type of habitat are they using.
NARRATOR: To track the snakes, the veterinary staff at the Zoo surgically implant radio transmitters into the captured animals.
Randy: The transmitter goes intra-abdominally, which on a snake, there are ribs the whole length of a snake, so no matter where we go we have to go between ribs. The transmitter looks large, but if you consider what the animals eat its considerably smaller than a meal. So it wont cause any problem.
Jeff: Ideally what you try to do with a transmitter is to use one that is about five percent of the body mass of the snake. The one we just put in here today is a 150 week transmitter. So basically we are going to get about three years of use out of that. This is a good sign. The snakes starting to tongue flick, weve double checked that our transmitter is actually sending out a signal, so in the next day or so this animal will be back out in the wild. Another success.
Cory: I feel like Ive done this walk before.
NARRATOR: Back in the field, the Washington University team tracks another rattlesnake.
Cory: A little further then well head up the hill.
Wayne: I mean its great weve been tracking here. Well this is our sixth year. We have over six thousand observations, you know, in the active season, and I still love walking up on the snake that I am tracking. To see that there, and I think that Ill always love that no matter how many times we do that.
NARRATOR: The myths regarding venomous snakes far outweigh the reality. Missouri has not had a fatal snakebite incident in several decades. While encounters with Copperheads are relatively common, the shy reclusive Timber Rattlesnake is rarely seen. The fear of rattlesnakes, while understandable, is largely unfounded.
Jeff: Chances are you are never going to see one of these animals. There have been people that have lived in the vicinity of the study site that have never ever seen one. But if they do they ought to appreciate the fact that...you know, this is one of the real signs of wilderness to me.
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Poor Suffering Timber Rattlerby calism2331,338 views
WHERE DO THESE SNAKES LIKE TO HIBERNATE? I WISH SOMEBODY WOULD COME DOWN HERE AND DO SOME STUDIES. MORE AND MORE ARE BEING SEEN EVERY YEAR HERE, BUT JUST IN THAT "SMALL" AREA AND I WOULD SURE LIKE TO FIND OUT WHY. IS THERE ANYONE I CAN CONTACT WHO WOULD BE WILLING TO COME DOWN HERE FOR A "RATTLESNAKE ROUNDUP" AND DO SOME RESEARCH??
231MasseyFerguson 1 year ago
I live in South Louisiana. Been here all my life, for 26 years. I seen my first Timber Rattler last year on our hunting lease, West of the "blacktop road." It got away... People are Always seeing and killing them over there on that side of the road every year.
Well yesterday evening after dark at 7:50 pm, my brother killed one IN the blcaktop road. Had 8 rattlers and a button. My question is WHY ARE THE RATTLESNAKES SEEN ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE BLACKTOP ROAD AND NOT THE EAST SIDE?
231MasseyFerguson 1 year ago
we have em here in NY state largest one i ever saw was nearly six feet long and fat as a grapefruit in the middle
jaker2880 2 years ago
I grew up in a land surveying business & I have never seen a rattlesnake in the wild. My Dad was a county surveyor for 18 years, & we have surveyed a lot of wild & wooly areas. I'm also a hunter & fisherman. Copperheads & rattlesnakes pretty much keep to themselves, from my experience.
MLBRENIZER 2 years ago