I recently spoke with a young man who provided two Timber rattlesnakes to one of the Pennsylvania round-ups. This, in and of itself, is enough to receive a verbal flogging in the US. But I did learn some useful information that definitely applies to this subject....
At this recent round-up, only 44 snakes were brought in. Only males. Not all of which were rattlesnakes. All were returned to the wild. I've said before that these rattlesnake round-ups have the potential to be turned into educational, rather than sensational, venues from which we can reach the greater population. Numbers like the ones from this round-up only serve to cement this opinion in my mind.
Before anyone lights their torch or reaches for their pitchfork, let me run some numbers by you real quick. Every year, I come across dozens of ignorant rednecks who proudly brag about the number of rattlesnakes that they've killed this year. Often, I meet people who claim to have killed ten or more in a given year. These are just the ones that
I meet, there are many more out there. These people make up a good percentage of the attendees at these types of events. So, conceivably, if you have only 500 people (underestimated) show up at your event, it would seem likely that you need only reach less than one percent of the total attendees in order to offset the environmental impact made by your 44 snakes. All of the others that you reach will be a bonus.
Even better:
keep the damn snakes, breed them, use the same ones, year after year, stop capturing new specimens, turn these events into rattlesnake
festivals, rather than round-ups, and watch the environmental footprint shrink.
These events draw
huge crowds and have the potential to be converted in such a way that they be used for
good, rather than evil. I admit that this will take a
serious flip of the proverbial script, but this device is already in place for us to take advantage of. Why not do so?
Now, as for the cal kings.....
First off,
Lampropeltis getula has many subspecies, ranging across much of North America. So even if this
was a viable solution to the rattlesnake, "problem," in the US, you could just as easily do it with native subspecies. The problem, as
many kingsnake keepers will tell you, is that kingsnakes are not at all picky. Their diet does not consist mainly of rattlesnakes, but rather, includes them. They will eat anything they can get down. This includes
all of our other snake and lizard species. Not a solution at all, but just an added problem.
The best solution that I can think of, if there
is even a real problem (which I
sincerely doubt), is illustrated by a meeting I had with four Texas herpers, earlier this year. We, Arizona herpers, made good sport of their knee-high, snake-proof boots. Where
we grew up, we were taught to watch where we put our feet.
Not rely on some four-hundred-dollar pair of magic boots. The same goes for the rattlesnake massacres that take place in Texas.
Watch your step. We
owe that degree of respect to our environment. These animals didn't move into
our neighborhoods. We moved into
theirs.
Sorry for ranting. I'll crawl back out into my desert now.
" a squat, scaly worm with, 'don't touch,' on one end and, 'that's why,' on the other."
-Thomas Palmer