Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am excited to be getting out of the frozen tundra of Chicago and heading to Loma Linda, CA (hopefully they haven't been affected by mud slides!). In addition to listening to all kinds of wonderful talks on various aspects of Crotaline biology and conservation, I am looking forward to giving a talk of my own. We are getting ready to unveil one of the nation's largest public rattlesnake displays and I look forward to bringing home all kinds of great ideas for our exhibit.

Is anyone else heading out there? Should be fun.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildilfe Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL
-----
Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I am going and am also presenting a poster. I'll be with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum contigency. See you there. Hugh

Hugh-

Although living in Tucson these days, I'll be w/ the Phoenix contingency. See ya there.

Bryan

.

I look forward to seeing you!!! Peace, Hugh

Hi Rob:

I'm arriving tonight. I am going out to Yucca & Joshua Tree on Saturday AM. You are welcome to come along. I will be back in plenty of time for the Reception.

See ya there,

Al
-----
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

SAN BERNADINO COUNTY SUN (California) 12 January 05 Rattlesnakes symposium draws variety (Nikki Cobb)
Every year, 35 to 50 people are brought to Loma Linda University Medical Center with snakebites.
Most of the time, antivenin therapy effectively treats the toxin. But doctors and others fascinated by the slithering creatures can learn about the latest research, including therapies for bites, at a symposium at the medical center starting Saturday evening.
"This symposium is aimed largely at an audience of rattlesnake researchers, rattlesnake enthusiasts, medical personnel and anybody just interested in snakes," said William K. Hayes, a rattlesnake researcher and organizer of the weekend event.
Everyone can benefit from a better understanding of snakes, said Dr. Sean Bush, a snake expert whose cases are chronicled on the Animal Planet television series "Venom ER.' For instance, people's own behavior often puts them at risk or hinders their treatment after being bitten.
"There are two basic populations that get bit by a rattlesnake,' Bush said.
"First you have a middle-age male, who's been drinking, who tries to handle the snake and gets bit on the hand,' he said. "Or it's a small child running around playing after school who gets bit on the foot.'
Wherever the bite, Bush said people waste time trying to suck the venom out of the wound, instead of heading straight for the doctor. It's impossible, he said, to suck out much venom, and "putting your nasty mouth on the wound can't be good,' he said.
Hayes said his research suggests provoking a snake will result in a worse bite more venom injected than will accidentally surprising the rattler. Nonetheless, he said, "the large majority of bites are not accidental.'
And harassing a snake can be expensive. Hayes said the treatment for a snake bite runs into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Another myth that kills, both scientists said, is the belief an adult rattlesnake's bite is less toxic than a baby snake's.
"People can then underestimate the severity of a bite from a large snake,' Hayes said. "So that's a problem.'
There are six species of rattlers locally. The Western diamondback, the South Pacific, the Mojave green, the speckled, the sidewinder and the red diamond rattlesnakes all are active during warm-weather months.
And despite popular belief, these rattlesnakes aren't hybridizing with other, harmless snakes. Nor, most researchers agree, are they evolving to have a stronger, more dangerous venom.
But with a little common sense and respect, most people need never know the pain of a rattler's bite. Even blue jeans offer some protection, Hayes said, decreasing the amount of venom injected in a bite.
"Don't touch them, if you can avoid it,' Bush said. "And if you're bitten, the main thing is to go to the hospital as soon as possible. People usually survive snakebites.'
Rattlesnakes symposium draws variety

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SUN (California) 16 January 05 Snakes star in symposium (David Schwartz)
Loma Linda: Those fangs, that rattle, its venomous bite: Dr. William Hayes likes to call the rattlesnake a "charismatic species.'
Yet the charming these snakes have done is to strike paranoia in the public conscious. And experts say they still need much more research on the highly specialized subject.
A conference that continues through Tuesday at Loma Linda University brings together about 275 participants, including some of the most preeminent scientists in this specialized field of study.
Although the many of the presentations are technical, the public is welcome to attend the symposium, which started Saturday.
Indeed, with presentations titled, "Phenology of the Timber Rattlesnake in southern Minnesota: Implications for conservation,' and Latin names tossed around in casual conversation, much of this was not for the casual herpetologist.
"We need to better educate ourselves and the general public about these animals,' Hayes, one of the organizers of the first Biology of the Rattlesnakes Symposium, said on Sunday.
He and most of the others pointed toward the irrational fear of the rattlesnake, and said the animals shouldn't be feared as much as respected.
Participants came from as far away as Chicago and New York. There were presentations about the red diamond rattlesnake that can be found in the nearby hills of Loma Linda. And the lethal venom of the Mojave rattlesnake.
"As long as you don't step on them, they're just fascinating animals,' Michael Cardwell, one of the organizers, said after his presentation on the Mojave rattlesnake, which he has been tracking for nearly four years.
Cardwell, a retired sheriff's deputy, doctors who treat the bitten, and the scientists who study the biter will be discussing today about how they can both work together on snakebite treatment.
"We need to be talking and collaborating,' he said.
Inside the halls at Wong Kerlee International Conference Center, on the Loma Linda University campus, the speeches went on, kept to strict 15 minute segments. Much like any class, some in the audience were hypnotized in rapt attention at the slides of photographs and charts.
Tom Anton, who works for a biological consulting company in Chicago that specializes in endangered vertebrates, praised the symposium.
"I'm very impressed with the caliber of the research for such a specialized field,' he said. It's particularly needed now, when the habitat of rattlesnakes is being developed, he said.
The last conference that studied venomous snakes was held in Sweden in 2000.
"We couldn't match the venue,' Hayes said. "So we got the superstars.'
Sunday night the "who's who' of rattlesnake study were honored, including William S. Brown, Henry Fitch and Findlay E. Russell, the last a returning alumnus to Loma Linda University.
For all the academic honors, a room was set aside for the real thing. Walk in and the clacks of the rattles could raise your stomach a foot or two even if the foremost scientists assured you that these were unnecessarily maligned creatures.
Like the scientists, these reptiles are Chris Giacoletti's passion. But they're also his business. He takes his snakes to movies and studios.
So when the capitalistic and academic strata of the snake world meet, how do they get along?
Giacoletti shrugged. A couple weeks ago, he was at a reptile show in Orange County and everyone was asking to see a diamondback rattlesnake.
"Diamondbacks are a dime a dozen,' Giacoletti huffed. "We have a lot that are more rare. Here, they can appreciate what we have.'
Snakes star in symposium

PRESS-ENTERPRISE (Riverside, California) 17 January 05 Experts gather to give rattlesnakes their due (Darrell R. Santschi)
Photo: Chris Giacoletti of Action Reptiles of Upland shows a Santa Catalina Island rattlesnake during the symposium at Loma Linda University. This variety of rattlesnake doesn't carry a rattle in its tail. (David Bauman)
Loma Linda: They frighten. They bite. They occasionally kill. But rattlesnakes are not nearly as bad as most people think.
That was the message resonating Monday at Loma Linda University, where more than 300 medical professionals and research scientists gathered to share information at the first Biology of the Rattlesnakes Symposium.
"I don't why we have such a terror of snakes," said Renee Lizotte, a zookeeper at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. "I guess we're taught as children."
Lizotte, who lectures on rattlesnakes using live critters to perk up her audiences, says rattlesnakes get a bad rap. Even their venom has good properties, she said.
"We have even started using venom to treat heart attacks," she said. "It has an anticoagulant that can break up blood clots."
When Stoney McDonald of Galveston, Texas, wasn't trying to sell snake-catching equipment to the participants at the symposium, he was defending rattlers.
"When you kill a snake, you increase our rodent population," he said. "Last year, $17 billion worth of damage was done by rodents. They carry disease, they eat your wood, they mess with the insulation in your home, they tear up wiring. When they eat through wires, they can start fires.
One of the most popular exhibits at the symposium was a room in which Chris Giacoletti of Action Reptiles of Upland tended 20 live rattlesnakes and two venomous lizards: a Gila monster and a Mexican beaded lizard.
"A lot of people want to see stuff they want to have, but they can't have," he said. "The public doesn't appreciate some of the reptiles we have. Here, people know. For a lot of these people, snakes are their whole lives."
Rulon Clark, a rattlesnake researcher from New York's Cornell University, said he came to the four-day symposium in Loma Linda "because this is the only place I know of where all the people who work on that particular animal are together in one place."
He reported on his study of the effect of human population growth and housing development on the timber rattlesnake population. We're killing off snakes as we chew up their habitat, he said, and some species are threatened with extinction. He said that could happen to snakes in Southern California.
"I don't think you could help but have that happen based on how rapidly this area is developing," he said. "Unfortunately, rattlesnakes are a low priority for the people who control growth. Statistically, the odds of people getting hurt from rattlesnakes are very low. But they're seen as a threat. They have a big image problem."
The symposium, which ends today, was not just about saving rattlesnakes.
Dr. Sean Bush, a Loma Linda emergency-room physician best known for his appearances on "Venom ER," a series on the Animal Planet cable television network, reported on his experience with an antivenin made from antibodies extracted from sheep.
Only about 15 percent of his patients have experienced allergic reactions to the serum, he said, while a horse-based antivenin occurred produced life-threatening reactions in a quarter of patients and milder long-term reactions in 75 percent of patients.
Even better serums are being developed, he said.
"For me, I think the most important thing to come out of this symposium is the contacts I have made with people in varied scientific" disciplines, he said.
It is the sort of collaboration, he said, that one day will save lives.
Experts gather to give rattlesnakes their due

I know we usually don't say much but your posts from newspaper clippings are all read and appreciated!

Rich