REDSTONE ROCKET (Decatur, Alabama) 23 October 13 Shedding light on snakes of Redstone Arsenal (Kari Hawkins)
Look but give them space, the game warden advises
With woods all around, it shouldn’t be surprising that Redstone Arsenal is home to lots of creepy, crawly critters that most of us would rather not encounter.
Topping that list, for both practical and superstitious reasons, is most likely the quietly slithering, often hiding and sometimes dangerous snake.
But there’s nothing to fear, said the Garrison’s conservation law enforcement officer Kelly Smith, if people just follow a few simple rules when they come up on a snake – remain calm, give the snake its space, and don’t try to catch it or kill it.
“We do have a good population of snakes on post. We actually have many species of snakes in Alabama and at Redstone Arsenal,” Smith said. “What I want to get across to the public is that we share our woods with snakes. Snakes are not looking to go out and hurt people. They just want to survive.”
Most snake bites occur when people try to kill or catch a snake, he said.
“Snakes do not want to encounter humans. If you give them a chance, they will usually crawl away. If you come up on one, back off calmly and give it a wide berth,” he said.
“A lot of times, a snake will be trying to get away but it’s the humans who keep that from happening.”
Smith understands the interest people have in snakes and that interest, often, will lead to trouble.
“Even people who do not like snakes have a fascination for them,” he said. “I see it all the time. You can look, but keep a safe distance.”
On a recent sunny afternoon, Smith brought his snakes out to show visitors the varieties and similarities between the different types of snakes. Venomous (pit vipers) that can be found living on the Arsenal include the timber rattlesnake, the cottonmouth and the copperhead. Non-venomous snakes living on the Arsenal include the prairie king snake, gray rat snake, black king snake and corn snake as well as the garter snake, the black racer and the ribbon snake, among others.
Smith wants to encourage a healthy respect for snakes of all kinds.
“If I make people scared of snakes then I’ve failed miserably in my intentions. I want them to understand snakes, not be scared of them,” he said. “Snakes are nature’s pest control system and they are very efficient in that role. They are very good for the environment. They do a phenomenal job of keeping rodents down in our world.”
Snakes are well-known for eating mice, squirrels, chipmunks, amphibians, birds and bird eggs, and other snakes.
But there is also some variety in the snake diet. Cottonmouths, also known as water moccasins, eat fish, and small turtles and alligators as well as carrion. Copperheads are known for climbing into trees to gorge on emerging cicadas. The non-venomous black king snake is resistant to the venom of pit vipers, so they readily eat copperheads, cottonmouths and rattlesnakes. Corn snakes are valued by farmers for their presence on the farm, where they eat wild rodent pests that damage crops and spread disease.
When hunting for a meal, venomous snakes will use their poisonous bite to kill their prey before eating. Non-venomous snakes will bite their prey, and then wrap themselves around it and constrict it to make their kill. Non-venomous snakes are also known for pressing their prey against a hard object to kill it.
Their bite, natural camouflage and escape are the only ways snakes have to protect themselves when threatened by humans or predators such as opossums.
“Snakes do not have a lot of mechanisms to protect themselves. A lot of snakes will turn tail and crawl away when threatened. The only other option they have besides fleeing is biting, when cornered,” Smith said.
Snakes, especially venomous species, tend to hold their ground if provoked. Non-venomous snakes are known to be more docile, but they will bite if they are provoked. When harassed, the prairie king snake will shake its tail like a rattlesnake. The black king snake will also rattle its tail when threatened, and then release a foul-smelling musk.
September and October are months when snakes are highly active, especially if the weather remains mild. This is the time of year when they are mating and looking for dens where they can hibernate during cold temperatures.
“Like most cold-blooded animals, they sense when the seasonal changes are happening,” Smith said.
But, snakes do not hibernate for months at a time. During the colder months beginning the end of October and going through March, snakes can still be seen coming out of hibernation on unseasonably warm days.
“They will remain active as long as the weather is still warm,” Smith said. “The cooler the weather gets the more lethargic snakes become. But if we have periods of warm weather in the winter, you will see them out. I’ve seen cottonmouths out toward the end of December before.”
As a game warden, Smith catches and handles snakes for educational and conservation purposes. He knows the dangers that go along with snakes.
“You need to know what you are doing to handle snakes. They are so fast. In less amount of time than it takes to blink an eye, they can get you. Venomous snakes need to be treated like a loaded gun,” he said.
“The overwhelming majority of snakes that we have out here are non-venomous. But even a bite from a non-venomous snake is not fun.”
Snake markings are used most often to identify the different types of snakes.
Venomous snakes have distinctive markings and habits that make it easy to identify them from each other.
The timber rattlesnake has dark brown or black chevron markings with irregular zigzag edges on a yellowish brown or grayish background. Often, a rust-colored stripe is present down the center. They can grow to be quite long. Smith’s timber rattlesnake has grown to more than 4 1/2 feet long during its two years of captivity.
The timber rattlesnake is best known by its rattling tale, which makes a buzzing sound. Yet, many times they won’t rattle. Their temperament – and their likelihood of rattling their tails – varies greatly within their own species.
“Timber rattlesnakes are ambush predators and use their natural camouflage to great advantage,” Smith said. “Unfortunately for people they are hard to see and their venom is very potent. These can be large snakes capable of injecting a sizable venom dose.”
Often though, a timber rattle snake will strike before it rattles.
“Many times that first strike will come and then the tail will rattle,” Smith said.
The cottonmouth can also grow to be quite large. Their color pattern may consist of a brown, gray, tan, yellowish-olive or blackish ground color, which is overlaid with a series of 10 to 17 dark brown to almost black crossbands. The underside of the head and the inside of the mouth is whitish, cream or tan, and is where it gets the name cottonmouth. It is also known as trap-jaw for its habit of snapping its mouth shut when anything touches its mouth.
When threatened, cottonmouths will vibrate their tail and throw back their head with their mouth open to display the white interior, often exuding a pungent musk odor.
Adult cottonmouths are capable of delivering a painful and potentially fatal bite. When antagonized, they will stand their ground by coiling their bodies and displaying their fangs. Territorial males have been known, on rare occasions, to approach intruders in an aggressive manner.
The copperhead’s color pattern consists of a pale tan to pinkish tan ground color that becomes darker toward the midline, overlaid with a series of 10 to 18 crossbands. A series of dark brown spots is also present on the flanks, next to the belly, and are largest and darkest in the spaces between the crossbands. The belly is the same color as the ground color, but may be a little whitish in part.
Markings are less obvious among non-venomous snakes.
Prairie king snakes are light brown or grey in color, with dark grey, dark brown or red-brown blotching down the length of their bodies. Often their coloring causes them to be mistaken for a copperhead.
The coloring of a prairie king snake is “noticeably non-distinctive at advanced age,” Smith said. “Their pattern changes greatly over time.”
Smith’s prairie king snake has “four longitudinal lines running down his body. They start out blotchy and spotty, and then their markings fade more into a watermark as they age. In the sunlight, they have a bit of an iridescent sheen to them.”
Gray rat snakes are dark to light gray with darker gray or brown blotches. The belly is whitish in color near the head and becomes checkered or mottled toward the tail.
When startled, the gray rat snake stops and remains motionless with its body held in a series of wave-like kinks. It will defend itself by raising its head and bluffing a strike. These snakes will release a foul-smelling musk when handled.
The black king snake is black with traces of yellow or white spots, or bands while corn snakes are orange or brownish-yellow, with large, black-edged red blotches down the middle of the back that make them resemble a copperhead.
Snakes can be found in all types of habitats, including deciduous forests, rugged terrain, overgrown fields, swamps and marshes, grassy areas and mixed woodlands. The corn snake’s name came from the days when Southern farmers stored harvested ears of corn in a wood frame or log building called a crib. Rats and mice came to the corn crib to feed on corn, and corn snakes came to feed on the rodents.
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