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W von Papineäu
at Sat Jun 17 21:24:14 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by W von Papineäu ]
SACRAMENTO BEE (California) 15 June 06 Rattled : Scared of snakes? Here's the skinny: Bites are rare -- and rarely deadly -- in this region (Dan Vierria)
After burying its fangs in Tom Crawford's New Balance running shoe, the rattlesnake decided to stick around.
"It caught its fangs in the shoe and couldn't get loose," Crawford says. "Here I am trying to kick it off, and it wouldn't come loose."
Crawford became more alarmed when the rattlesnake wrapped itself around his ankle.
"Here I am standing on my left foot, trying to kick it off my right foot, and it wraps around my ankle," he says by phone from his home in Fallon, Nev. "I'm almost ready to have a heart attack anyway, so finally I reach around and grab it by the tail and just threw him."
Crawford was bitten several years ago by Northern California's only native venomous snake -- the Northern Pacific rattlesnake. Each year, about 45,000 people are bitten by snakes in the United States. Only about 8,000 bites are from venomous species such as rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths and coral snakes.
Runners, mountain bikers, hikers, campers, anglers and residents of foothill, mountain and desert communities are prime candidates for rattlesnake bites. About 800 rattlesnake bites per year are reported in the United States, resulting in one or two deaths, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. However, complications from rattlesnake bites can include shock, blood clotting and allergic reactions.
Northern California's venomous rattlesnake is active April through September and its range extends south to Santa Barbara. Northern Pacific rattlesnakes have an unpredictable temperament and a keen sense of smell. They enjoy basking in the sun until late summer, when they become more nocturnal.
Between August and October, Northern Pacific rattlesnake babies are born. Baby snakebites are just as poisonous as their parents' bites.
Southern California's list of rattlesnakes is more, well, serpentine.
According to the California Department of Fish and Game, those rattling down south include the Western diamondback, sidewinder, red diamond, Southern Pacific, speckled, Great Basin and Mojave rattlesnakes.
North of where the sidewinder winds, up in El Dorado County, is where Crawford encountered his rattlesnake. An ultramarathoner, he'd more than once completed the torturous endurance race from Badwater in Death Valley to the top of Mount Whitney -- 135 miles of hell.
Living in Santa Rosa at the time, Crawford was training for the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-miler from Squaw Valley to Auburn. (This year's 33rd annual Western States Endurance Run is June 24-25.)
At the bottom of El Dorado Canyon, he'd stopped to rehydrate and refill his water bottle in the creek.
"I was standing and drinking," he recalls. "Just kind of catching my breath in a shady area when I felt something on my foot."
The something was a rattlesnake. Crawford didn't hear it rattling, but felt the bite. After performing acrobatic maneuvers to peel the snake from around his ankle, he pulled off his sock and shoe. A tiny scrape on his little toe was proof the fangs had punctured the skin.
"When he hit my shoe, he put all that venom into the shoe and sock," Crawford says. "When I yanked him, one of those fangs scratched my little toe area. It was bleeding, and the venom from my sock went into that scraped area."
Being bitten by a venomous snake is bad enough, but Crawford's situation was more dire. It was three steep miles from the bottom of the canyon to where he'd parked his pickup. And there was nobody around.
Lacking soap, he washed the bite area with water.
Then he began to run, something you're not supposed to do after being bitten by a snake. Staying calm and maintaining a normal heart rate is recommended, but so is receiving medical care ASAP. With three miles of grueling switchback trails between him and the canyon rim, running would get him help faster.
How common are fatal snakebites in the United States? Odds are better that you'll expire from a bolt of lightning, an airplane crash or your pajamas catching fire. Snakebites from all poisonous species in the United States result in five to 10 deaths a year. Yet snakes are among our worst animal kingdom nightmares, right there with big, furry spiders.
Leslie Colby says she once reached right into a nest of baby snakes in her Pocket backyard.
"I screamed and did a little dance," she says. "I didn't go back there or dig in that spot after that."
Fear of snakes is called ophidiophobia. Colby says she didn't want to know the whereabouts of mama snake. Chances are the mama snake was even more reluctant to meet up with Colby.
The rattlesnake prefers to swallow plump rodents rather than scare humans. If given an escape route, snakes will make a quick exit. Most rattlesnake bites in the United States are caused by young, drunken men handling snakes.
Outdoor enthusiasts such as hikers, runners and cyclists force face-to-fang meetings of man and serpent because they're on the snakes' native habitat.
You may confront a rattlesnake on water, too. Rattlesnakes are great swimmers, hitching river rides on floating logs or just riding the current. Four years ago, a man was bitten by a rattlesnake while swimming in the Cosumnes River near Elk Grove.
Although fatalities are rare, the pain from a rattlesnake bite can be extreme. The California Poison Control System describes symptoms as "swelling, pain and bleeding at the site of the bite; sweating, chills, dizziness, weakness, numbness or tingling of the mouth or tongue ... swollen eyelids, blurred vision, muscle spasms, unconsciousness, improper blood-clotting ability."
The luckiest rattlesnake bite victims receive a "dry bite," or one in which the fangs pierce the skin but no venom is delivered. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 20 percent to 30 percent of pit viper bites (rattlesnakes, cottonmouths or copperheads) are nonvenomous. The reason is timing: The snake strikes and releases its venom before puncturing the skin.
The snake's size, age, general health and time of year can affect the potency of its venom.
Nonvenomous snakes also bite. The bites can be painful and cause allergic reactions.
"Any snake will bite you, but in our area you should look out for gopher and king snakes," says Mike Meissbach, owner of Humane Rattlesnake Removal in Diamond Springs. "Out of the last three gophers I got, two were aggressive."
Severe bites can be life-threatening, and every snakebite requires medical attention. Children, because of their body size, are more apt to be seriously affected by venomous snakebites.
By the time Crawford had made his way up the canyon to his pickup, it had become painful to run. He drove to the Foresthill ranger station. From there, Crawford was taken to the fire station where, he says, "The sheriff drove me to Auburn," for medical attention.
"They scrubbed it like crazy and gave me a shot of something," Crawford says. "They elevated my foot and after a while, things started to subside. They said, 'Man you're a lucky guy.' "
The United States is relatively lucky when it comes to venomous snakebite fatalities. Worldwide, estimates of snakebite deaths range from 60,000 to 125,000 a year. Most fatalities are in Asia and Africa. Estimates vary because the deaths go unreported in some areas of the world.
Russell's vipers, kraits, mambas and cobras are prolific killers. Russell's vipers are responsible for more than 6,000 deaths a year in India, Southeast Asia and China. Compared with the Russell's viper, the rattlesnake is a cuddly hamster.
Even so, rattlesnake venom drenched the bite area of Crawford's running shoe, creating a stain that refused to come out. He used those shoes until he'd worn them out. Memories of that day at the bottom of El Dorado Canyon have lingered much longer.
"It shook me up enough that I really began watching where I put my feet," he says. "After that experience, I became almost paranoid."
Rattled : Scared of snakes?
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 CA Press: Rattled : Scared of snakes? - W von Papineäu, Sat Jun 17 21:24:14 2006
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