Rattlesnake survey serves as officer training for Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission – Outdoor News
Clearfield, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission recently conducted a timber rattlesnake survey in an undisclosed part of Clearfield County.
The location of the survey is kept a secret to protect timber rattlesnakes from unlawful activity including poaching.
The known breeding habitat is a rocky portion of forest that is visited once annually by the agency’s biologists to monitor the abundant population of the native species of venomous snakes. The reptiles emerge from underground dens in the spring to bask in the warmth of the sun.
From late April through September, pregnant female timber rattlesnakes require eight- to 10 hours a day of solar radiation to prepare to give birth to live young.
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The opportunity to survey the snakes is also a chance for the current class of waterways conservation officer trainees to see and handle one of Pennsylvania’s three native venomous snakes species up close and personal, according to Chris Urban, the commission’s Natural Diversity Section chief.
“It’s a training session for our new cadets, to get experience handling and looking for snakes and shows them how to find them,” he said.
“It prepares them if they need to do programs with them, or just to learn more about them. And they’ve gone through the classwork, and so this is like the capstone, where they get to practice what they’ve been learning and try it.”
Rattlesnakes like rocky habitat that holds heat, especially south-facing exposure that is warm all day, Urban explained.
“The snakes just love it – but what’s really important is the snakes that are gravid – meaning pregnant females – must have eight to 10 hours of solar radiation per day to ‘bake their babies’ and bring their metabolism up to gestate the young,” he said. “And they’ll be doing that from now until about September.”
Urban noted that if you’re above 1,500 feet in Pennsylvania, the likelihood of running into timber rattlesnakes is really good. They occur in 51 of 67 counties, so they’re really common in high elevations, he said, often in state and national forests and state game lands.
Timber rattlesnakes are mostly docile animals, Urban contended.
“If you see a snake, give it respect, give it distance – you’re not under any threat,” he said.
“When you encounter them, they just want to get away from you. But don’t mess with them – we ask people not to play with them. They can be dangerous if they bite you.”
In the survey, after snakes are captured, they are checked for previous microchip tags, or implanted with new tags to help study their future growth.
Some of the officer hopefuls admitted that they had some anxiety about being close to rattlesnakes.
“Nerves … a lot of nerves – I was really nervous,” said Blake Anderson, waterways conservation officer trainee. “But once I got my hands on a snake and got it calmed down, it was really exciting. A lot of adrenaline, definitely.”
The trainees had received some training in snake handling, but the survey offered a new experience.
“Tubing them, tagging them and seeing the history of them and how they’re growing was really good,” Anderson added. “In the future, I know once I get to my district, if I have snakes there, I’ll be well trained to be able to handle them and whatever comes.”
Waterways conservation officer trainee Jenna Alleman agreed, and suggested that it’s important for people to realize that snake are not stalking them.
“They’re just out here trying to survive in their natural habitat, and if folks are out hiking and come across one, they’re not out to hurt you, they just want to protect themselves. So if you leave them alone, they’re going to leave you alone.”
The 26th class of wildlife conservation officer trainees is scheduled to graduate this summer.
