Over 90 Venomous Snakes in Den Underneath Northern California Home - FaunaClassifieds
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Herps In The News Local or national articles where reptiles or amphibians have made it into the news media. Please cite sources.

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Old 10-14-2021, 03:02 PM   #1
JColt
Over 90 Venomous Snakes in Den Underneath Northern California Home

Al Wolf, director of Sonoma County Reptile Rescue, found his hands full of scales during a recent call.


On October 2, Wolf responded to a call from someone who said "they had snakes under their house," Sonoma County Reptile Rescue — a nonprofit offering rattlesnake rescue and relocation free of charge — shared on Facebook.

After arriving at the home in Santa Rosa, California, Wolf climbed underneath the house to look at the issue. "Three hours and 45 minutes later," he had pulled 81 Northern Pacific rattlesnakes, 59 babies and 22 adults, out from under the Bay Area home.

"I've been doing this 32 years. I get calls with snakes under the house pretty often. The most I've done under a house is four or five," Wolf told SF Gate, adding that, before this incident, he had only seen dens this large in the wild.


In the days after the initial discovery, Wolf made two follow-up visits to the home and found 11 more snakes, bringing the total discovered under the house to 92.

Northern Pacific rattlesnakes are the only venomous snake species native to Northern California. The species is not aggressive unless provoked, Wolf told SF Gate.

All of the snakes Wolf retrieves, including the 91 he found recently, are released into the wild. Most are taken to unpopulated areas, but some snakes are released onto ranches as a form of pest control at the landowner's request.


The Santa Rosa home's location on top of a rocky area that has access to the outdoors is an environment snakes like and serves as an ideal den spot for rattlesnakes.

"She told me, 'Now I know why I haven't had any rodents all these years,' " Wolf said of the homeowner.

The Sonoma County Reptile Rescue director plans to visit the home several more times over the next couple of months to help keep the snake population there under control.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/re...KhG?li=BBnbcA1
 
Old 10-14-2021, 04:33 PM   #2
Socratic Monologue
"some snakes are released onto ranches as a form of pest control at the landowner's request"

I like this part. We need a service like this where I live.
 
Old 10-14-2021, 10:23 PM   #3
WebSlave
I thought snakes would imprint with their dens and return to them each year? Or is that an old wife's tale? If so, I wonder how that impacts those animals when it comes time for them to return to their den? Do they do the Lassie thing and return to that den, find another one, of just wind up dying over the Winter months?
 
Old 10-15-2021, 09:04 AM   #4
JColt
Quote:
Originally Posted by WebSlave View Post
I thought snakes would imprint with their dens and return to them each year? Or is that an old wife's tale? If so, I wonder how that impacts those animals when it comes time for them to return to their den? Do they do the Lassie thing and return to that den, find another one, of just wind up dying over the Winter months?
Just a clip from an article

Quote:
To give a relocated snake the best chance of surviving, it should be moved to an area that already has a population of the same species. This is a sure-fire way of knowing that the area is appropriate and the relocated animal can fulfill all of their needs there, which include the ability to find prey, refuge, and mates.
https://livingalongsidewildlife.com/?p=3749
 
Old 10-15-2021, 01:14 PM   #5
Varanuskeeper87
This reminds me of that old movie called (silent predators)
 
Old 10-15-2021, 04:30 PM   #6
WebSlave
Actually, I am wondering if that den has been there for a very long time, and that house was just unknowingly built over top of it.

Back when I lived in Maryland there used to be a really great snake overwintering den that had lots of black rat snakes and eastern milk snakes using it. It was actually pretty secluded and not that easy to get to as it was a long abandoned railroad. It was a pretty good hot spot for some really pretty eastern milks until the county, for some reason, built a foot and bike trail right next to it. I'm guessing one or more of the housing developments that were cropping up everywhere brought people closer by. Didn't take long for the inhabitants of that den to vanish afterwards. I am sure a lot of the people then using that trail thought they were doing a good deed by killing off the "cottonmouths" and "coral snakes" they misidentified that they were finding laying on that asphalt trail.

Speaking of misidentifying snakes, I remember my brother in law over in Delaware telling me one time when Connie and I visited her family over there that he had just killed a copperhead he had found in the field. I asked him how he knew it was a copperhead and after thinking for a moment, blurted out, "Well, it was just like the last one I killed!"
 
Old 10-15-2021, 07:40 PM   #7
JimM
Rich ;

Where in DE was this ?
 
Old 10-15-2021, 08:31 PM   #8
WebSlave
Quote:
Originally Posted by JimM View Post
Rich ;

Where in DE was this ?
My wife's family lived in the Georgetown area.

But trust me my brother in law (now deceased) couldn't have truly identified a copperhead if his life depended on it.

BTW, I was just looking for range maps of the copperhead and stumbled on this page -> https://sciencing.com/copperhead-sna...k-8574266.html

Ever seen a copperhead that looked like the one in the picture?
Attached Images
 
 
Old 10-15-2021, 08:38 PM   #9
WebSlave
Sheesh, I have to stop looking at other websites. Here's one claiming that they have a pic of a black racer, but is, in fact, a black rat snake.

https://greennature.com/delaware-snakes/


Attached Images
 
 
Old 10-16-2021, 10:14 AM   #10
JColt
I grew up in Orlando area from 1968 till 1980. When we first moved there they were preparing for Walt Disney World. Tons of orange grows, swamplands and bush. Red sand roads every where. I last visited Orlando in early 90's. All my snake hunting places were now asphalt and buildings. All the orange groves where I would find fish from all over the world that had been deposited by birds in temporary ponds now apt complexes and professional buildings. I don't think I was never more depressed.
 

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