I got a call from a friend Saturday morning indicating they had a rattlesnake in their yard and asking if I wanted to come get it. I had my daughter and grandgirls visiting and thought the grandgirls would enjoy it, so I grabbed my snake sticks (a gift from my daughter many Christmases ago) and we went over.
My friend directed us to a metal gate resting against a block wall and the snake was curled up under the gate.
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| Southern Pacific rattlesnake |
It was a Southern Pacific Rattlesnake, a subspecies of the western rattlesnake. They can be quite nasty and have a real toxic venom. But this particular snake was very mellow. When I grabbed it with the snake stick
it made no effort to strike or to even get away. We placed it in a large plastic container and then transported it over to a local canyon and let it go.
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| In the plastic container. |
It is the first rattlesnake I've seen locally in a while and I think the first rattlesnake my grandgirls have seen in the wild. It made for a great start to our Saturday.
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| My grandgirls with the snake right before we released it. |
Fun experience for the girls, and I'm glad the rattler got to go find a new home in the wild.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably not going to add this to my list of things to do with the grandkids, but I'm impressed by your grandgirls' comfort around reptiles.
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