LUFKIN DAILY NEWS (Texas) Snakes alive! 30 different species slither through Pineywoods (Christine S. Diamond)
If you're going to live in East Texas, you're bound to have close encounters with all kinds of critters – and specifically, with snakes.
"This is actually an area of high (snake) species diversity – probably the highest in the nation," said herpetologist Craig Rudolph, research ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service's Southern Research Station in Nacogdoches.
Rudolph, who has studied snakes in Deep East Texas since the early 1990s, estimates there are 30 different types of snake species in the Pineywoods.
Snakes are a normal and necessary part of life, Rudolph said.
"They are predators of lots of other organisms – mice, rats and other rodents and are part of the biodiversity in the world and a lot are declining pretty seriously, especially with roads and vehicles," he said.
Understanding the diverse behaviors of snakes is important to safe-guarding against bites – which are pretty rare.
However, the general consensus seems to be "the only good snake is a dead snake." And people are notorious for inaccurately identifying snakes, he said.
"I suspect the general fear of snakes has increased in society," he said. "It is a long and deep-seeded fear of snakes. And I don't fully understand where it comes from. Obviously there are venomous snakes, but it seems some people seem to go to extremes."
The important thing, he said, is to remain calm in the presence of a snake. If one falls off a limb into your canoe, he said, gently take a paddle and lift it back into the water.
Even racers, the species known for chasing, quickly lose interest if you leave them alone, he said. The local representative of the racers is the coachwhip, he said.
"Some snakes, as a defensive mechanism, will approach you as a bluff, but if you move away they'll lose interest – they won't chase you for any substantial distance," Rudolph said.
Of the 30 species of snakes in East Texas, only five are venomous, he said. These include the timber rattlesnake, pigmy rattlesnake, copperhead, cottonmouth or water moccasin, and coral snakes. But for four of these five venomous snakes, their sensor pits are a dead giveaway, Rudolph said.
"People don't seem able to apply it," he said. "Four of the five venomous species in East Texas are pit vipers – they have a pair of infrared sensing pits where they sense temperature. The pits looks like a second pair of nostrils on the head. Only four species around here that have them."
Most snakes will bite if provoked, he said.
"Most of the venomous snakes bite pretty readily," Rudolph said.
And some nonvenomous snakes, like the large Eastern diamondback watersnake, are known for being aggressive biters. Often the ones which cause the most profuse bleeding are smaller snakes with needle-like teeth, Rudolph said.
"I get bit by nonvenemous snakes fairly regularly," he said of wounds he treats with a thorough cleaning.
Then again, the aggressive behavior of huffing, hissing and tail shaking is a bluff, Rudolph said referring to the hog-nosed snake which "essentially won't ever bite."
"A lot of snakes will do a big bluff," he said.
Snake activity in East Texas is just as variable as the behavior and diet of each snake species.
Hibernation can be cut short by early springs. Activity from daytime versus nighttime also changes with the seasons as snakes are temperature dependent – like copperheads and cottonmouths, both of which become increasingly active at night in the summer, he said. And breeding season takes place in the spring for snakes.
Walking around barefoot or in sandals in the evening increases your odds of being bit.
And you could probably uncover a snake just about anywhere in East Texas – in a tree, rat snakes love to climb; under rocks or pots or logs; curled in the leaf litter; basking in the sun; cooling on the concrete; or swimming in the creek. However, most snakes go underground when they hibernate, he said.
"There are snakes that live in all habitats – there isn't a habitat that doesn't have snakes of some kind," he said.
The most common local ground borrowing snake frequently caught in the path of the plow or tiller, he said, is the prairie king snake which forages on moles and voles – common landscape pests.
"It is real variable what snakes eat," he said. "And some snakes are real restricted in what they eat.
"Copperheads have a pretty diverse diet – they'll eat small mammals, insects, other reptiles and amphibians. Other species tend to specialize on slugs."
Diet often depends on the size and age of the snake, he said.
"Primarily snakes eat live prey, occasionally carrion – and they get used to it, if they are in captivity," Rudolph said.
Snakes have a keen sense of smell. That's how they track their dying prey, he said.
"Smell is a big part of their life," he said of the sense that snakes employ in attracting a mate.
Overall, there isn't much data on snake habits in the wild. The conclusion that larger snakes live longer was derived from observing snakes in captivity at zoos. There is no way to tell how old a snake is, according to Rudolph.
Timber rattlesnakes can live 20 to 25 years – probably one of the longer life spans, he said.
In the early 1990s, the Southern Research Station began actively studying two diminishing species of snakes native to East Texas – the Louisiana pine snake and the timber rattlesnake.
"We got a lot of information on home range size, movement patterns, and what they feed on," he said.
The Louisiana pine snake is a species that is really rare, he said. And a current project near Fort Polk, La. is attempting to locate new populations.
The different species were trapped and taken to the lab where they were measured and implanted with a radio tracking device.
They found Louisiana pine snakes breed in the spring, the timber rattlesnakes in late summer to early fall.
While many snakes lay eggs and leave them, several of the local venomous snakes – rattlers, cottonmouths, and copperheads – all give birth to live snakes, he said. The litter size depends on the species and size of the female, he said. Timber rattlers usually give birth to anywhere from eight to 12 baby snakes.
The radio tracking devices also revealed movement patterns. A snake could go days without moving and then move several hundred meters, Rudolph said.
Despite an ongoing local urban legend, Rudolph said they are not breeding and releasing snakes into the wild. They only release snakes which they had originally trapped in the wild.
Rat snakes are by far the most common encounters of the snake-kind in East Texas, he said. These nonvenomous snakes are notorious for foraging around homes for rodents and birds. And they are the most frequent source of calls to research lab, he said.
As for canine intuition – don't count on it. Some have it and some don't, Rudolph said of dog-snake instincts.
"Some are (instinctive) and some are really stupid – it always kind of struck me that those little lap dogs are kind of stupid," he said. "Some are real good at staying away (from snakes) and others are going to get bit every time."
In addition to 30 snake species, the East Texan is likely to encounter a close cousin – skinks. Neither snake nor lizard, the unusual creatures can bite but are nonvenomous.
"All the skinks around here have legs," Rudolph said.
30 different species slither through Pineywoods