TRYON DAILY BULLETIN (N Carolina) 24 July 06 Dangerous pursuit: In search of rattlesnakes
I could hear my mother calling from the house, frantic, worried a bit about me, as we had just moved from the city to the country. I‘m sure she was convinced either I wouldn‘t fit in or, not being familiar about things like poison ivy or other rural hazards, I might get into some trouble. Perhaps I should have stuck closer to the house. I was, after all, only six years old.
But in truth, this is what I had dreamed about all my short life. And I felt more at home at this moment than I ever had in the city.
With my mother‘s voice in the background, pretending I couldn‘t hear her, I continued my quest along the stream bed, turning over rocks and shore side logs, each one revealing some new treasure – salamanders, wood frogs, crawfish, and a world of insects I couldn‘t even begin to imagine.
Discovering a rough strewn pile of old fieldstone, probably dumped when this area had been a farm years before, I eagerly dove into the task of turning each over carefully.
Toppling the largest of them back, I froze, breathless. Before me, prostrate, in perfect symmetrical coils, was perhaps the most beautiful creature my youthful eyes had ever seen – scaled, shiny, smooth, like a small leather whip or a piece of green and yellow jewelry. The ubiquitous, common garter snake (thamnosis sirtalis), but to me it was a thing of perfect beauty and the pinnacle of everything my six-year-old mind wanted to possess.
I had read about such creatures and seen them on television, but right here before me was the living, breathing animal. I reached forward tentatively to touch the snake, but the moment was broken by my mother‘s voice, now louder and more insistent, a distraction, and the snake quickly disappeared further down into the pile of stone, out of my grasp. The moment remains with me to this day, marking the beginning of a lifelong fascination and passionate interest in such things.
It‘s 5 a.m. and here I am again, sitting in a diner in the deep south, surrounded by leftover night creatures and other crepuscular denizens of rural America. Dressed in my usual hunting attire, I drink my coffee and eat my eggs with that warm familiar sense of "I‘ve been here and done this before, so many times."
But today is different. It‘s not November or December and the end game of the day‘s pursuit is neither white tail, mallards, quail nor even an elusive gobbler.
No. Our sport today is for a creature not only shunned by most but greatly feared by many. In fact, I would venture a guess that most would think anyone purposely seeking it out would have to be several dogs shy of a full pack. Well, I can‘t argue with that opinion, but insanity would be no deterrent to this expedition.
Flipping through the channels on your local cable lately, you are inundated with shows portraying some erstwhile Jungle Jim tackling, capturing or otherwise harassing all manner of dangerous reptiles. From croc hunters to cobra catchers, it‘s gotten to the point of saturation and all a bit silly, if you ask me. But who am I to complain? There‘s obviously a market for this stuff as they keep turning it out, and I‘m usually right there watching it!
But in the midlands of South Carolina, there exists outside of Hollywood characterizations the Real McCoy, as it were, embodied in the six-foot frame of one Keith Taylor, naturalist, outdoorsman, guide and unabashed rattlesnake enthusiast.
Catching his first snake ( a large black rat snake) at six years old, he convinced his somewhat dubious father to allow him to keep it. As he tells it, he kept it fed on eggs pilfered from his mother‘s chicken house and his dad, although a bit squeamish, was nevertheless fascinated by the snake‘s ability to swallow them whole. And not a word was ever said about the fewer eggs in each morning‘s breakfast batch.
Because he spent his childhood like most country boys, fishing, hunting, catching frogs and turtles, it was only a matter of time before he was to meet up with the creature that was to become his life‘s passion.
At age 11, riding his bike on his paper route, on the old state road outside of Columbia, S.C., he was startled to come across the gold and chevron pattern of a large canebrake rattlesnake, stretched out in the sun. Love at first sight. As thrilled as he was to capture this prize, he tells me he was far more fearful of what his father would do if he knew he had caught it than he was of any possible danger from the snake.
As he grew up, Taylor took up taxidermy to make a living and to do what he loved the most – being outdoors and in touch with wildlife and also having the freedom in time to pursue his hobby-turned-passion that is hunting rattlesnakes.
After 40 years of doing just that he has not only developed a large network of plantations throughout South Carolina that call on his services, but has created the first and only serious system for the management of snakes on the Southeast private lands – first to the benefit of these landowners, and secondly to the benefit of all wildlife management, including the snakes themselves.
After observing and participating in this program myself, I can easily see why Keith Taylor is probably the most successful hunter of rattlesnakes anywhere, and his numbers prove it.
He has caught more than 10,000 snakes in the last 30 years – and he keeps meticulous records. Most landowners and private hunting clubs in the southeast have an interest in ridding or at least minimizing the number of snakes on their property. Most, however, do not understand the ecological role that these snakes play. But Keith does and uses all of this to strike a balance between the landowners‘ wishes and the general wildlife management of these properties.
Discovering years ago that all snakes love to bask under discarded tin or sheet metal, gathering the warmth of the sun to heat their cold blood, Taylor had a brainstorm.
Checking with local junk yards, he started carting the used junk hoods of automobiles to selected sites on some of these properties, laying them down a few at a time in appropriate areas.
Taylor said he was surprised at the effectiveness of his technique.
"The snakes are already there,” he said. “This was just a way to concentrate them in a particular area, make it attractive to them."
The environment created by these shelters also attracts wood and cotton rats in greater numbers, which serve to feed the snakes.
Taylor says one plantation, which had been having a terrible time getting its wild quail population to increase, has seen significant growth in the number of covies in the past five years. One factor has to be Keith‘s removal, during nesting time, of large numbers of chicken snakes, also attracted to his metal car hoods. That, along with the predation of rats by the rattlesnakes, has surely made a difference. The landowner is happy with the results regardless of the reason.
Taylor‘s reputation has spread mostly by word of mouth, but he now has more than 2,000 car hoods spread across thousands of acres of private land and hunting clubs throughout South Carolina, with new landowners calling him weekly about snake removal.
In 2002, Keith and his partner, Steve "Fluff" Barton, decided to launch a new business venture. They inaugurated Black Water Rattlesnake Outfitters of Cayce, S.C., which is how I came to find myself deep in the swamps on this spring morning, along the Edisto River.
I would guess that in this world there are few sounds outside of the oily snick of a pump gun in a dark room that can bring on that dead-in-your-tracks, stomach-gripping, low-voltage sensation as can the resounding buzz of a rattlesnake, unseen, but in close proximity to one‘s feet.
In the southeastern United States, there are three species of rattlesnakes. The first is the largest pit viper in North America, some specimens attaining lengths of eight feet or more. The Eastern diamondback rattler (crotalus adamaentus) ranges from coastal North Carolina down through Florida and west to Louisiana. It is a potent heavy-bodied snake, relatively scarce these days throughout its range. It remains mostly in palmetto-pine scrub woodlands, rarely more than 50 miles inland, apparently preferring a coastal environment. The Eastern diamondback is one of the Holy Grail species for rattlesnake hunters, and an awesome sight to see in the wild. Truly a magnificent animal.
The second is the timber rattlesnake and its low country cousin, the canebrake. Timbers range from New England to the Florida panhandle as far west as Eastern Texas. Mountain specimens vary from dark black to a rich, sulfur yellow with wide bands. The lowland canebrake variety is considered by many enthusiasts to be the most beautiful of the rattlesnakes (though I realize that this is quite subjective as I would imagine most of the world does not consider any rattlesnake beautiful.)
The canebrake has a grayish base with pink hues with broad obsidian chevron patterns crisscrossing its back and often an orange dorsal stripe running the length of its long body. The canebrake‘s beauty belies the reality that this is one of the most dangerous of snakes as its venom seems to be unusually toxic to humans, but like most rattlesnakes, it seems to prefer flight to fight and if left undisturbed is generally quite docile. Remember that venom is for providing food, not defense, so it‘s not really in the snake‘s interest to waste it on this when simply remaining undetected or fleeing will do.
The last species in the southeast is the tiny pygmy rattler, not often encountered since it prefers to rummage through leaf litter and live an undetected life eating mice and small frogs. This snake also has a potent bite, but because of its small size, often does not inject much venom.
Three other venomous species occur in the southeast as well, including the cottonmouth or moccasin, as it is sometimes called, a true water pit-viper closely related to the copperhead. Despite many people’s misconception this species does not live in the upstate; the closest it comes to this area is south of Columbia, S.C.
The local common nonvenomous banded watersnake is often and unfortunately misidentified as this snake. In actuality, the timber rattler and the copperhead are the only two species indigenous to the upstate area, and the timber rattler is found only in higher elevations such as the foothills above Tryon up into Saluda.
The last venomous species that inhabits the eastern seaboard is the colorful, shy, but very deadly coral snake. Colored like a yellow-red-black banded candy cane, it is rarely encountered and bites are rare. They eat mostly other snakes and small lizards and have a highly potent neurotoxic venom. They bite only when handled. Having short fixed fangs, they must chew venom into their prey; coral snakes are fairly rare throughout much of their range.
Taylor takes clients, who travel from across the country, to any number of beautiful, private locations in the backwoods of the south in pursuit of adventure. On any given day, you will catch rat snakes, king snakes, corn snakes, the colorful but dangerous copperhead and cottonmouths, but the real trophy is crotalus horridus atricadautus – the cane brake rattler. The ultimate prize of any day‘s hunt!
During the course of my day‘s sport, besides rattlesnakes, I caught my first glass lizard and a southern hog nose snake (an amusing animal that insists upon playing dead, complete with open mouth and tongue hanging out, a ruse to fool predators). I also caught a very irate baby possum who was quite indignant that I insisted on picking him up and scratching his belly.
My time spent in the wilds of South Carolina in pursuit of these elusive, beautiful and dangerous reptiles sent me back to those days of my childhood before there were whitetails, before there were mallards, turkey, quail, before there were bird dogs, guns, horses, or hounds. There was just the wonder and amazement of a small boy who turned over a rock and discovered something wild and precious that would enthrall and fascinate him for the rest of his life.
And this I know Keith Taylor understands.
Dangerous pursuit: In search of rattlesnakes