- ■ * 



Timber rattlesnake 



reservoirs and grassy fields, some 

 snakes have expanded their range. 



That may not be what people with 

 a snake phobia want to hear. But many 

 folks may want to reconsider their 

 fears, maybe even encourage certain 

 nonvenomous snakes to hang around. 



"A nonvenomous snake is about 

 the best thing you could keep in your 

 back yard," says Bowen. 



A species like the eastern 

 kingsnake, a large, shiny black snake 

 with white, cream or yellow rings, is 

 found across eastern North Carolina 

 and is a well-known snake-eater 

 immune to many poisonous snake 

 venoms. The presence of the 

 kingsnake or other common vermin- 

 eaters such as the rat snake or black 

 snake discourages venomous snake 

 species from moving into an area. 



How do you determine if a snake 

 is poisonous or not? 



Poisonous snakes have slightly 

 larger jowls than nonpoisonous ones. 

 Rattlers, copperheads and cotton- 

 mouths have a single row of scales 

 under the tail, but nonvenomous 

 species have a double row. Other 

 poisonous snakes can be determined 

 by their markings. Pit vipers have 

 elliptical pupils. 



In most cases, 

 you're not going to 

 want to get close 

 enough to look for 

 these clues. If you do 

 come across a snake 

 you can't positively 

 identify, use common 

 sense: leave it alone. 

 Most people are 

 bitten by poisonous 

 snakes as they try to 

 kill the creatures. 



Like most wild 

 animals, snakes are 

 more afraid of 

 humans than we are 

 of them. Snakes are hardly social. 

 They don't exhibit play behavior and 

 spend almost no time with their 

 young or with other snakes. 



"If they don't have a reason to 

 move," Braswell says, "snakes 

 stay still and hide. They're in the 

 business of survival. Going 

 around picking on things larger 

 than you are does not promote 

 survival." 



But if a snake is provoked 

 and feels it has no alternative, 

 it will bite, Braswell says. 



If you're bitten by a 

 snake, get immediate medical 

 attention. Don't open the 

 wound or suck the venom. 

 Keep calm. Avoid unneces- 

 sary movement, especially 

 of the limb where the 

 wound is located, so that 

 venom spread throughout 

 the body will be slowed. If medical 

 assistance is received, a full recovery 

 is likely. 



In fact, says Bowen, of the 8,000 

 venomous snakebites that occur each 

 year in the United States, only 10 to 15 

 victims die, and these are usually the 

 very old or young. An antivenin (the 

 snake venom antidote) works well and 



is available at hospitals across the 

 country. 



Bowen doesn't seem too worried 

 about the prospect of a cottonmouth 

 clamped around his leg. In all the years 

 he's handled the swamp-dwellers, he 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 5 



