PRESS & SUN-BULLETIN (Binghamton, New York) 21 July 06 Rattlesnakes shut down rest stop
Painted Post (AP): Female timber rattlesnakes out for some time in the sun have shut down a highway rest stop near Corning in Steuben County.
The snakes visiting the picnic area at the Interstate 86 rest stop are probably pregnant, said Rulon W. Clark, a Cornell University snake expert.
"What they are doing is exposing the embryos to the kind of constant high body temperature that is optimal for their development," he said. "It's just like birds sitting on eggs."
Classified as a threatened species in New York, the rattlers den in a hillside above the highway. Clark said they will spend much of their time in the sunny area until they give birth in mid-August and then return to their dens when the nights turn colder in October.
"I did get two snakes out of there at 11 a.m. Monday," said Bob Corneau, a licensed snake handler from Big Flats. "They were between 7 and 10 years old."
"What we've been doing is relocating those snakes back up to the den area and to a different basking habitat," said Clark.
In the meantime, state officials closed the rest stop because of the potential danger, a move Clark and Corneau said was probably not necessary.
"They are a venomous animal," Clark said. "But the danger is very much overestimated. The risk of death is almost nonexistent. ... People could be perfectly safe if there were some informational signs. People can respectfully see and enjoy the fact that there's a natural predator out there. Snakes do not attack people. They only strike defensively."
No estimates of the number of snakes were available and it was not known when the rest area would be opened again by the state Department of Transportation.
Rattlesnakes shut down rest stop