VIRGINIAN-PILOT (Hampton Roads, Virginia) 06 April 08 Activities often bring humans, snakes together (Lee Tolliver)
Turkey season opens Saturday, so hunters will head into woods and fields.
Largemouth bass and crappie are moving to the shallows - or already are there - so many anglers will walk the shorelines of ponds, lakes and streams.
While humans are on the move, so are snakes.
And the places where people want to enjoy many of their outdoor pursuits just happen to be where snakes want to go.
"Be extra careful walking around shorelines or the edge of a wood line," said Jimmi Bonavita, a longtime herpetologist who lives in Chesapeake. "Snakes love these areas because of food and because they can go quickly from sun to shade to raise or lower their temperature. "
The snakes hunters and anglers encounter usually are non-venomous.
But for hunters, there's a chance of coming across a rattlesnake or copperhead. In southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, the species would be a canebrake rattlesnake and a northern copperhead.
In both states, canebrakes are protected by law. Killing one is illegal.
The copperhead is closely related to the cottonmouth, the snake of most concern to anglers who fish from shorelines.
Bonavita, who speaks to groups that want to learn about snakes, emphasizes that by nature, snakes are afraid of people.
"These snakes aren't aggressive," he said. "But you can't be stupid around them. They can be startled easily, and that will usually result in a strike. It might be a dry bite, a warning bite, but why take that risk?"
Of the three poisonous snakes that inhabit the region, the canebreak can have the most dangerous bite. Bonavita said bites from copperheads and cottonmouths are rarely fatal.
"But the bite from a cottonmouth, even though they aren't as poisonous, is a very ugly bite," he said. "It's very destructive to tissue, and the effects can last a very long time.
"Cottonmouths eat dead and diseased fish and all kinds of nasty things."
Bonavita said most snake bites are the result of startling a snake or attempting to handle it.
Most of the time, he said, a snake senses a human is around and leaves before it is seen. Some snakes rely on their camouflage and remain still.
Bonavita said there are about 8,000 venomous snake bites every year in the United States.
He said 75 percent are the result of provoking the snake. The rest are "legitimate bites that take place by accident," he said.
Of all bites, nearly 90 percent are on the hands, and 98 percent are suffered by men.
"And with about 40 percent of them, the victim usually has a blood-alcohol level of more than .10 percent," he said. "All of which says that most people bitten by a poisonous snake are being stupid.
"Respect them and remain calm when you encounter one, and you won't have anything to worry about."
Bonavita stressed that hunters and anglers need to move slowly and be aware of where their hands and feet are at all times.
Activities often bring humans, snakes together