The Snake Man

I took my boys to the Wildlife Experience this week.  It is a small museum perfect for elementary aged kids and younger.  This month they have an exhibit on reptiles and amphibians.  While admiring a 5 foot long alligator, a museum volunteer starts talking to me and the boys about the different animals in the exhibit.  The conversation started innocent enough, "How old is that alligator?"  "How big will it grow in captivity?"  "What idiot thought that made a good pet?"  The usual.

"Well, sh*t honey.  He was so stinkin' cute, I just thought I'd bring him home and he could live in the pool.  Look how much he loves a good scratch!"

Suddenly, my son walks over to this flat screen TV playing a documentary on venomous snakes.  The 80 year old volunteer lights up, full of excitement.  "Oh, boy do I know a whole lot about snakes!  What would you like to know, son?"  Ethan stares at him a little bit and says, "Which ones will kill you?"

Before I knew it this story teller dives into his career as a Bureau of Land Management employee who conducted surveys in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona for over 20 years.  His fear of rattlesnakes has been long gone as he couldn't count the times he was struck on the boot from one of those "aggressive rat killers."  He explained to my 6-year-old that you kind of get used to being bitten and not dying, therefore they aren't scary anymore.  Thanks for that, sir.

I told him I run on the Backcountry trails and had a few rattlesnake encounters last summer.  I've read recently that they are supposed to be coming out of hibernation soon, therefore do I need to be more worried about running when they just awoke?  He looked at me blankly and said, "Well, they are hungry, but you know they aren't going to eat you, right?"  Yes I realize that, but are they going to be more territorial, more aggressive?  I don't want to startle one on the trail.

He told me you see more rattlers in the spring because they hibernate together in a giant clump in order to stay warm through the winter months.  While growing up on a farm in Montana he saw a picture of the snakes waking up from under his friend's barn.  They came out in a mass of over a thousand snakes at once and slowly spread out.  "You see them more in the spring until they find their own grounds again and thereafter you will only see them sunning themselves on the trails occasionally."

"Well, I run on the trails, sir.  That's my concern."

"Okay, here's is my advice to you young lady.  Don't do that."

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