OPERATION HORRIDUS
Page III
After taking all three snakes back to the lab, taking weights, measurements and painting two of the three snakes rattles, I transported them back to the area for release back into the wild.
That sounds simple enough but some of you may ask: "How do you weigh and measure a rattlesnake and paint its rattle?" Answer: Very carefully...that's obvious...but there is technique that ensures the safety of us and the snakes. It works like this:
An accepted method of venomous snake restraint is the tube method. You carefully coax the snake into a special clear plastic tube that is slightly larger in diameter than the snake. Then you carefully but firmly grasp both the tube and the snake. If done correctly, this does not allow the snake to move forward, back up or turn around. This keeps the snake restrained and the researcher safe from the business end of the snake. Check out the video below of how paint marking of a timber rattlesnake is done--the snakes in this video are the same snakes pictured on these pages.
After collecting the data I then transported all three of the snakes back to the capture site and released them in the exact spots where they were found. In the below photo I carefully hoist the big male snake out of the transport bucket and back onto the ground near his capture location. NOTE: As you can see in the below photo I am lifting this large Timber Rattlesnake using a snake hook. While it is safe for me...it may not be safe for the snake. Lifting small, thin snakes with a hook is one thing but when lifting a large heavy bodied snake such as this one you should always use at least two points of contact with the snake for adequate weight distribution so that the entire weight of the snake is not pulling on only one point on it's body--as in the photo. The below technique could cause injury to the snake and we do not want to do that. Just after the below photo was taken I "tailed" this snake and eased him to the ground.
After I placed him on the ground, he coiled into a defensive posture and waited for us to move away--but not before we fired off a few photos. He sure is an impressive reptile isn't he!!
He may look intimidating--and believe me, he is! From my human point of view he seemed confident in his strength and the power of his venom. This may be why, throughout most of his visit with me, he was quite a placid snake--after the first day or so he never rattled or struck at the glass of the enclosure when I was nearby. Even in the field he maintained his composure and stood his ground--quietly coiled in a defensive posture like in the above and below photos--with not a rattle to be heard. He did however rattle a bit when we had him tubed and were painting his rattle in the office--but if I were him I don't think I would have liked it either. He just doesn't know that it's for his, and his species, own good.
For Operation Horridus PAGE IV click:HERE
After taking all three snakes back to the lab, taking weights, measurements and painting two of the three snakes rattles, I transported them back to the area for release back into the wild.
That sounds simple enough but some of you may ask: "How do you weigh and measure a rattlesnake and paint its rattle?" Answer: Very carefully...that's obvious...but there is technique that ensures the safety of us and the snakes. It works like this:
An accepted method of venomous snake restraint is the tube method. You carefully coax the snake into a special clear plastic tube that is slightly larger in diameter than the snake. Then you carefully but firmly grasp both the tube and the snake. If done correctly, this does not allow the snake to move forward, back up or turn around. This keeps the snake restrained and the researcher safe from the business end of the snake. Check out the video below of how paint marking of a timber rattlesnake is done--the snakes in this video are the same snakes pictured on these pages.
After collecting the data I then transported all three of the snakes back to the capture site and released them in the exact spots where they were found. In the below photo I carefully hoist the big male snake out of the transport bucket and back onto the ground near his capture location. NOTE: As you can see in the below photo I am lifting this large Timber Rattlesnake using a snake hook. While it is safe for me...it may not be safe for the snake. Lifting small, thin snakes with a hook is one thing but when lifting a large heavy bodied snake such as this one you should always use at least two points of contact with the snake for adequate weight distribution so that the entire weight of the snake is not pulling on only one point on it's body--as in the photo. The below technique could cause injury to the snake and we do not want to do that. Just after the below photo was taken I "tailed" this snake and eased him to the ground.
After I placed him on the ground, he coiled into a defensive posture and waited for us to move away--but not before we fired off a few photos. He sure is an impressive reptile isn't he!!
He may look intimidating--and believe me, he is! From my human point of view he seemed confident in his strength and the power of his venom. This may be why, throughout most of his visit with me, he was quite a placid snake--after the first day or so he never rattled or struck at the glass of the enclosure when I was nearby. Even in the field he maintained his composure and stood his ground--quietly coiled in a defensive posture like in the above and below photos--with not a rattle to be heard. He did however rattle a bit when we had him tubed and were painting his rattle in the office--but if I were him I don't think I would have liked it either. He just doesn't know that it's for his, and his species, own good.
For Operation Horridus PAGE IV click:HERE
An accepted method of venomous snake restraint is the tube method. You carefully coax the snake into a special clear plastic tube that is slightly larger in diameter than the snake. Then you carefully but firmly grasp both the tube and the snake. If done correctly, this does not allow the snake to move forward, back up or turn around. This keeps the snake restrained and the researcher safe from the business end of the snake. Check out the video below of how paint marking of a timber rattlesnake is done--the snakes in this video are the same snakes pictured on these pages.
After collecting the data I then transported all three of the snakes back to the capture site and released them in the exact spots where they were found. In the below photo I carefully hoist the big male snake out of the transport bucket and back onto the ground near his capture location. NOTE: As you can see in the below photo I am lifting this large Timber Rattlesnake using a snake hook. While it is safe for me...it may not be safe for the snake. Lifting small, thin snakes with a hook is one thing but when lifting a large heavy bodied snake such as this one you should always use at least two points of contact with the snake for adequate weight distribution so that the entire weight of the snake is not pulling on only one point on it's body--as in the photo. The below technique could cause injury to the snake and we do not want to do that. Just after the below photo was taken I "tailed" this snake and eased him to the ground.
After I placed him on the ground, he coiled into a defensive posture and waited for us to move away--but not before we fired off a few photos. He sure is an impressive reptile isn't he!!
He may look intimidating--and believe me, he is! From my human point of view he seemed confident in his strength and the power of his venom. This may be why, throughout most of his visit with me, he was quite a placid snake--after the first day or so he never rattled or struck at the glass of the enclosure when I was nearby. Even in the field he maintained his composure and stood his ground--quietly coiled in a defensive posture like in the above and below photos--with not a rattle to be heard. He did however rattle a bit when we had him tubed and were painting his rattle in the office--but if I were him I don't think I would have liked it either. He just doesn't know that it's for his, and his species, own good.
For Operation Horridus PAGE IV click:HERE
After collecting the data I then transported all three of the snakes back to the capture site and released them in the exact spots where they were found. In the below photo I carefully hoist the big male snake out of the transport bucket and back onto the ground near his capture location. NOTE: As you can see in the below photo I am lifting this large Timber Rattlesnake using a snake hook. While it is safe for me...it may not be safe for the snake. Lifting small, thin snakes with a hook is one thing but when lifting a large heavy bodied snake such as this one you should always use at least two points of contact with the snake for adequate weight distribution so that the entire weight of the snake is not pulling on only one point on it's body--as in the photo. The below technique could cause injury to the snake and we do not want to do that. Just after the below photo was taken I "tailed" this snake and eased him to the ground.
After I placed him on the ground, he coiled into a defensive posture and waited for us to move away--but not before we fired off a few photos. He sure is an impressive reptile isn't he!!
He may look intimidating--and believe me, he is! From my human point of view he seemed confident in his strength and the power of his venom. This may be why, throughout most of his visit with me, he was quite a placid snake--after the first day or so he never rattled or struck at the glass of the enclosure when I was nearby. Even in the field he maintained his composure and stood his ground--quietly coiled in a defensive posture like in the above and below photos--with not a rattle to be heard. He did however rattle a bit when we had him tubed and were painting his rattle in the office--but if I were him I don't think I would have liked it either. He just doesn't know that it's for his, and his species, own good.
For Operation Horridus PAGE IV click:HERE
He may look intimidating--and believe me, he is! From my human point of view he seemed confident in his strength and the power of his venom. This may be why, throughout most of his visit with me, he was quite a placid snake--after the first day or so he never rattled or struck at the glass of the enclosure when I was nearby. Even in the field he maintained his composure and stood his ground--quietly coiled in a defensive posture like in the above and below photos--with not a rattle to be heard. He did however rattle a bit when we had him tubed and were painting his rattle in the office--but if I were him I don't think I would have liked it either. He just doesn't know that it's for his, and his species, own good.
For Operation Horridus PAGE IV click:HERE