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TIMES HERALD (Port Huron, Michigan) 13 June 08 Man finds poisonous rattler in yard - Snake is only venomous variety living in Michigan (Bob Gross)
Curiosity, in this case, didn't kill the cats.
Charlie Stephens said his three cats surprised an eastern massasauga rattlesnake at his Port Huron residence on Monday.
"I happened to step out to get the mail, and I noticed three of my cats were sitting in a triangle looking at the ground," he said. "I thought at first they were watching some bird that they had found.
"I walked over to them and they were looking at this snake that was crawling through my front yard in the grass."
Stephens said he picked up a downed branch and used it to herd the cats -- Katia, Bro and Mom -- away from the snake.
"They spent the rest of the afternoon hunting for it," he said.
Stephens, who lives on 13th Street south of Mercy Hospital, identified it as a massasauga rattlesnake, Michigan's only venomous snake.
"I'd seen one before, years before, when I was over in Saugatuck," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind what it was."
He said he tried to find out what to do about the snake but made little progress.
"I called the sheriff's office, and they said call the DNR. I called the Port Huron police, and they said call the DNR. I called animal control, and they said call the DNR," Stephens said. "The DNR finally got back to me, and they said 'fill out a form.'"
The DNR uses observations from people such as Stephens to track populations and the range of the snake.
It is listed as a species of special concern by the DNR and is a candidate for inclusion under the federal Endangered Species Act, Jeff Jundt, curator of reptiles at the Detroit Zoo, said.
"Actually, in most states, they are completely extirpated," he said. "Michigan is one of the last states that has a decent population of them."
He said habitat loss is a major factor in the decrease of the population. The snakes favor habitat such as cattail marshes.
"They like to hibernate in crayfish burrows and things like that," Jundt said. "When those kinds of things disappear, they disappear along with them."
Stephens said he believes the snake in his yard, like many other small animals, may have been displaced by recent development on 16th Street.
Jundt, however, said snakes in general are more visible in the spring as they emerge from hibernation and as the males seek mates.
"By this time, most everything normally would be dispersed for the summer," he said. "We're probably about a month behind."
Stephens said he wants people to know that there is a venomous snake in the area.
"If you have kids, you might want to watch what is going on in the grass," he said.
But Jundt said massasauga rattlesnakes are not aggressive and unlikely to bite people.
"More people are killed by horses ... than snakes in the United States," he said. "As long as people stay away from them and give them their space, they'll be fine."
Man finds poisonous rattler in yard

I'm officially freaked out.
A person saw a venomous snake in his yard and did NOT kill it.
Something strange is going on.

Glad someone has some sense.
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