DODGE GLOBE (Kansas) 26 May 06 Kansas Rattlesnake Hunting
I tend to gravitate toward the unusual Q you know, those out-of-the ordinary, unconventional and sometimes abnormal experiences that few people get to, or even want to experience.
With that in mind, it was only fitting that recently I do something I have wanted to do for years Q hunt rattlesnakes. Joyce and I traveled west to the uncomplicated and friendly little town of Sharon Springs for their 15th Annual Rattlesnake Roundup. No, Joyce did not hunt snakes with me. She does most everything I do on these forays, but the line here had been drawn long ago.
For you old rock-and-rollers, the late night drive out there taught me that Alice Cooper is alive and well, and hosts his own radio show from somewhere in Canada. The next day, I learned as well, that sunscreen does no good whatsoever when left in the bottle at the motel room. I also learned that the best place to find prairie rattlesnakes in Kansas is in prairie dog towns.
After a comfortable nights rest at the Heyl Traveler Motel, I met Andy Stewart from Liberal, Gary Bliss from Osborne, and Eric Eslinger from Rago, to learn the tricks of the trade. Andy owns an insurance agency in Liberal, and Gary is a rural mail carrier near Osborne, but the two like to be known as professional rattlesnake handlers, and have an organization they call Rattlesnake Wranglers. Through this organization, they provide educational information about Kansas rattlesnakes at outdoor shows, rattlesnake roundups, etc. Eric, to date, holds the distinction of having caught the longest prairie rattlesnake ever officially measured in the state.
We headed northeast to a favorite hunting ground of the trio, where the landowner has five consecutive sections of rolling, desolate pasture land, complete with numerous prairie dog towns. These "dog towns" offer the rattlers everything they need to survive, shelter from the heat and weather, plus easy meals whenever they choose. The dog town in which we started, covered nearly four square miles. We drove two pickups, each pulling a trailer. One trailer carried an electric golf cart, the other an ATV. These allowed us to more easily cover this vast expanse of prairie rattler habitat, plus tote our catch.
We drove a ways, then parked and fanned out to cover an area on foot, repeating this until satisfied the entire area had been sufficiently searched. The day’s first catch was a small snake that one of the guys heard rattling in a clump of yucca. We used four foot long aluminum poles called "snake catchers." They work like a larger version of the tool used by wheelchair bound people to pick things off the floor. With the first snake deposited in a covered bucket on the back of the cart, we loaded up and began following a fence further into the dog town. Early in the day the snakes can be found as they crawl among the prairie dog holes, and we soon spotted and caught two large rattlers as they slithered for cover.
As the new kid, I was tasked with riding standing on the back of the golf cart, and each bump brought rattling from within the bucket, which was about waist high directly in front of me.
We parked the cart again to walk a large area in the corner of the property. Andy and Gary carried burlap bags since we would be a long ways from "our wheels." The day was getting hotter now, and we were finding the snakes resting just inside the holes. A few more large rattlers were caught and bagged, and we were heading back to the carts, when I spotted what I thought to be a "cow pile" just outside a nearby hole. Upon closer inspection, the cow pile moved and rattled. Eric was close by, and his advice was "Get that sucker before he gets in the hole!" With my snake catcher I quickly latched onto the now ticked-off snake, and dragged it away from the nearby holes, where I could get a more secure grip on its writhing body. It was big, probably close to 48 inches, and had a large lump a little ways down from its head, obviously from just eating its landlord, so to speak. Bagging one can be a trick, but with the guy’s coaching I gripped it securely just behind the head with the catcher, grabbed its thrashing tail with my other hand, and lowered it gingerly headfirst into the bag. My day and my trip were now complete.
Andy and Gary possess special licensees allowing them to keep, sell and transport rattlesnakes. We ended the day with nine nice sized prairie rattlers, which would either be sold to buyers or kept for use in their educational shows.
The roundup was held Saturday and Sunday at the fairgrounds, and displayed dozens of rattlers caught from around the area, plus several big Western Diamond Backs, not native to Kansas, for educational purposes.
As we hunted, I saw what must be home to literally thousands of prairie dogs, and certainly hundreds of rattlesnakes, and I would never have known it existed had I not been taken there. As I see it, just another reason to Explore Kansas Outdoors.
Kansas Rattlesnake Hunting