Eastern rattlesnake might go on endangered list

The eastern diamondback rattlesnake, North America’s largest venomous snake, might need its own antidote. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is considering adding the reptile to the Endangered Species List. “We are going to do our best to keep these beautiful animals on the planet with us,” said Dan Everson, deputy field supervisor for the United States Fish and Wildlife service in Alabama. The service on Wednesday approved further study on the declining numbers of the snake species. The study will conduct 12 months of scientific surveys and public comments to determine whether the rattlesnake qualifies for endangered status. Environmental groups filed a petition last year saying the snake had vanished from Louisiana, was endangered in North Carolina and becoming harder to find in Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi. The snakes prefer longleaf pine forest, a habitat that once stretched across 90 million acres from Virginia to Texas but now is confined to 3 million acres, Everson said. Also to blame for the snakes’ shrinking numbers are events such as Alabama’s Opp Rattlesnake Rodeo, environmentalists say. “Snake freaks are just trying to get publicity by saying we are depleting the world of rattlesnakes and letting rats take over the world,” said Don Childre, city planner for the town of Opp, whose rodeo draws 30,000 people. While the 50 or 60 snakes trapped for the rodeo are subjected to stresses such as rattlesnake races, the animals are kept alive and released back into the wild, he said. Childre said his town, on the edge of one of the largest tracts of longleaf pine, the Conecuh National Forest, is home to lots of rattlesnakes, with the city clerk killing one in his garden just last week. In the United States, 99 percent of snake bites come from rattlesnakes. Of the 8,000 bites reported annually, only 12 deaths per year are reported, according to an American Family Physician website. Even if the snake is given endangered status, the law still allows self-defense.