ORANGE LEADER (Texas) 21 August 03 Snake! Did government stock rattlers in Pineywoods? (Chester Moore, Jr.)
Have you heard that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) officials have stocked venomous timber rattlesnakes in the Pineywoods?
As the story goes, because the species is "endangered" they bred the snakes in captivity and released them at various points in the Pineywoods of Texas.
Some say Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials were involved along with the U.S. Forest Service, the military and every other bureaucracy that would make for good conspiracy theories.
I have heard this story from literally dozens of people over the last few years and briefly wrote about it in one of my first columns for this paper in 1998.
Now, here is the final word on the infamous timber rattlesnake stocking in East Texas.
It never happened. Well, sort of.
Rattlesnakes have technically been "released" into certain areas in the Pineywoods. But they were not bred in captivity and they are not part of some secret restoration effort.
These "released" rattlesnakes are simply ones officials captured as part of a radio-telemetry study conducted by officials with the U.S. Forest Service. Officials captured timber rattlesnakes in the wild, fitted them with radio transmitters, and released back into the wild so biologists could track their movements.
Again, there is not and never has been a timber rattlesnake stocking program in Texas...or anywhere else for that matter.
According to TPWD endangered species specialist Ricky Maxey, the rumors have been floating around for several years.
"I used to work in the Big Thicket area out of Beaumont and we used to get questions about rattlesnake stockings. And it seems the rumors are still pretty rampant," Maxey said.
"Someone could have seen Forest Service officials capturing the snakes or releasing the ones fitted with transmitters and the rumor could have started there. Then again, it could be the case of a true story getting less truthful as it's told," he said.
The real story of timber rattlesnakes is no less interesting than legend and hearsay.
Maxey said they found out several interesting things about the snakes during the study.
"One thing that has been discovered involves their venom. It is generally common knowledge that pit vipers which include rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and copperheads, have hemotoxic venom which attacks muscle tissue. Coral snakes have neurotoxic venom which attacks the nervous system," Maxey said.
"Apparently the timber rattlesnakes that are found in Texas have a venom that's more neurotoxic than hemotoxic. That's unusual for rattlesnakes," he added.
Another myth they dispelled by intensive research on the species regards a subspecies of the snake.
Many believed that a unique variety of timber rattlesnake existed in the south. Southern rattlesnakes have heavier bodies and darker coloration than those in other regions. Scientists called those snakes "canebrake rattlesnakes."
"Through DNA studies it has been discovered that canebrake and timber rattlesnake are the same snake, but with slightly different characteristics due to habitat and diet," Maxey said.
Despite misunderstandings regarding their name and stocking programs, timber rattlesnakes could use a little help.
Habitat destruction, particularly the loss of hardwood bottomland, has taken its toll on the species, which is listed as threatened in Texas. That means timber rattlesnakes are legally protected from being killed.
"These snakes have declined with the habitat. They exist in pine forests and mixed pine and hardwood forests, but they do best in hardwood bottomlands. That's where a person is most likely to encounter these snakes," Maxey said.
I have hunted in East Texas all of my life and have never seen a timber rattlesnake. Maxey has only seen three before getting involved with the radio telemetry study and said most outdoorsmen will likely never encounter one.
"They're a shy, reclusive snake that doesn't mix well with urban development like some other species," Maxey said.
That means you should not expect to see a timber rattlesnake on your next outdoor excursion. It could happen, but it is not likely.
And to most people that's probably a good thing.
Snake! Did government stock rattlers in Pineywoods?