CHICAGO TRIBUNE (Illinois) 06 November 05 Exhibit aims at winning over rattled residents (M. Daniel Gibbard)
Lake County: It may be a tough sell, but Rob Carmichael wants Lake County to embrace rattlesnakes.
Carmichael, curator of the Wildlife Discovery Center at Middlefork Savanna in Lake Forest, makes his case in "The Grass is Rattling," billed as the nation's largest exhibit of the reptiles.
Curators collected their snakes from some novel sources. While some were bought from zoos, museums or private sellers, many came from agencies that confiscated them from poachers or even drug dealers, who sometimes stash narcotics in the snakes' cages.
"Most people only see rattlesnakes as animals that kill people, even though very very few people actually die from the bite of a rattlesnake," Carmichael said. "In fact, rattlesnakes are timid creatures that would rather back away than fight."
The exhibit, which opened last month, will display about 30 of the center's 100 vipers, including a sidewinder and rare snakes from Central and South America, plus the rare eastern massasauga, the only rattler native to the Chicago area.
Seen by many as fierce and deadly, rattlesnakes are misunderstood and actually are useful to the environment, Carmichael said.
"They are very important for rodent control," he explained. "Also, researchers are discovering very amazing medicinal properties of snake venom," including potential treatments for cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
Carmichael and his colleagues have bred the eastern massasauga in captivity, and he hopes to reintroduce them into the wild.
Naturally, he realizes releasing rattlesnakes may provoke hissy fits from his fellow Lake County residents, but he hopes his education program will allay fears and make it possible.
"These animals pose little to no threat to the public," he said. "They're secretive, not aggressive. Most people will never ever see one anyway."
Staffers included Carmichael's office while building the exhibit in their old administration quarters. "The snakes have taken over," he said, "but that's how I wanted it."
Exhibit aims at winning over rattled residents
