What I found when I got to work

[chelvis]

So this is just another normal day for me. Get to work unload everything from the car, about to go out and check on the wolves and wouldn't you know it a nearly 4 foot southern pacific rattle snake is not curled up under my truck. Now I am by myself at work today so out protocol says I have to just let it be. So I go back inside to do some other work and the came back out a few moment later to find that it has made itself very cozy on the front deck. Not wanting someone to step on him or get bite I had to brake protocol to remove it. Well he was not happy! Needless to say He was loaded into out snake can and moved a few miles down the road where he won't be bothered.

It must be a rattle snake day though. Driving back I find some kids on our dirt road, knowing a grouping of kids is normally not a good thing I drive up slowly. When I open the door they all ran off. Sure enough the kids had been up to no good as they were throwing rocks at yet another good size rattle snake. This one would not allow itself to be hooked and I only had a short snake tong with me so I just showed it off the road. Once in the brush it quickly bolted.

 

[larissalurid]

Wow, I feel so bad for the snake the kids were torturing, I'm glad they didn't kill it. :[

 

[naturboy87]

good for you its nice to see not every one hates rattle snakes just becuz...

 

[chelvis]

No our work policy is to remove if they could encounter people or let be if they are away from trails. The kids are not the brightest and I am glad the snake was unharmed. Pissed off but unharmed. Having studied ecology for so long its hard to imagine a desert ecosystem without them. I understand people maybe scared of them and I have to admit my arms and hands are always shacking after a capture, but it does not mean you have to be cruel to them.

 

[Aardbark]

Good story, its nice when everything works out ok. What is your job?

 

[chelvis]

I work at a wolf conservation center our in California. Love what I do. Its funny crawling into a den with an adult wolf is less scary than dealing with the rattle snakes, yet I have handled rattle snakes much more often, lol.

 

[Ujarak]

Glad you were able to save that snake from those kids. Definitely must have been a snake day. Today I was painting a house in San Marcos up against a canyon and from atop an extension ladder and I watched a rattlesnake come under the fence and go under a piece of plywood in their back yard. Knowing my customer has a 2 year old little boy I caught the snake and drove it a few miles down a dirt trail.

 

[chelvis]

It must be, my mom down in Clairemont called to let me know that a rattler was found in the neighbors driveway. Snakes are out in full force today.

 

[dragonmetalhead]

It's that time of the year. When the weather starts to warm up, the snakes come out. I always get calls form my neighbors asking to remove snakes form yards and garages, but I don't deal with live rattlers.

 

[chelvis]

I use to have a job collecting rattlers for bio-medical research. I have dealt with them on a few different levels, but all i have is respect and fear for them. If there is one that puts me in direct danger of a bite I just let it be. One guy I use to work with did not have the fear factor for rattlers, visiting him with a breathing tube after a really nasty red diamond back bite was harsh. He was air lifted out but it was a an hour and a half transport. He made it but still that weights heavily on my mind each time I have to remove one.

 

[naturboy87]

i caught a gofer yester day cumming out of a bird nest that i have ben watching for sum time now their was 3 eggs in it befor he came out lol ... he was way tame just climed right up my arm and around my neck chilled 5 ,10 min and then split up anuther tree looking for moor eggs and chicks way cool guy hope i see him agen soon...

 

[Kimmie]

sad for the snake but good that one of the kids didnt get biten :O