Tag: Texas

Originally Written for Medium – Edited and Expanded for this Post

I’ve lived in Western Diamondback country for much of my life, but not until a move to rural Central Texas in 2014 was it that I saw them regularly. In almost thirty years of mountain biking, trail running, hunting, and fishing in my adopted home state of Colorado, I had seen fewer than a dozen and had just three close encounters. Since then, I’ve had many more over a much shorter period and have been compelled to learn more about these reptiles than I ever wanted to know.

After eons of evolution and a less than fifty years of scientific study, much of their behavior remains a mystery to us. I’ve read that certain environmentally-driven changes in reptiles don’t take thousands of years to occur, but significant change can come in as little as a few generations. No one knows all the reasons why, but I’ve witnessed marked evolutionary changes that have occurred over a period of just twelve years. Take rattling and the purported reasons for it as an example. As children, many of us are taught that rattlesnakes rattle primarily to keep close encounters from happening. That before we even spot the source of a rattle, it is a way for rattlesnakes to communicate their presence to virtually anything or anyone, whether the animal (including humans) is approaching with purpose or the would-be encounter is a function of happenstance. It is designed to help prevent those other creatures from continuing on a path which will force a confrontation. It is a wholly defensive mechanism and, believe me. when you hear your first adult-sized rattlesnake rattle, it is a sound you will never forget and will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand at full attention. As humans, this is a response that is well written into our genetic code. The sound will make a person freeze in their tracks to have a tentative look around in an attempt to see the source of this primordial sound. In my fifty-plus encounters right here on our rural Central Texas property, I’ve heard that telltale rattle on just a few occasions before coming dangerously close to bumping into one. I’ve talked to longtime residents of this part of Texas, including a number of multigenerational ranchers, and other outdoorsman and there have been some theories derived surrounding this radical departure in behavior.

The most widely held belief is because just ten years ago, in the extremely rural areas surrounding the town of Lockhart (population: just over 14,000) there was an entire landscape which made for absolutely perfect habitat for growing snakes of all kinds which are indigenous to Central Texas. Between the large expanses of unmaintained ranch lands which have, over the course of numerous decades, gone from being open prairie interspersed with high-quality native grasslands and hayfields, with just islands of brushy species of trees to a landscape overrun with high-density walls of brush consisting of many species of thorny trees and thick stands of red oak, juniper, and mesquite. The area hasn’t had a significant fire (nature’s gardener) in decades to bring the unmitigated brushy growth back under control, restoring the prairie to its true form. This is partially due to the fact that wildfires have had the tendency to be squelched by ranch owners and area fire departments for over a hundred years. This kind of ecological transformation hasn’t happened in our area alone, but has become a serious problem throughout most states. Additionally, and in more recent history, many people have been fleeing the high cost of living in Austin, roughly an hour’s drive to the north, and relocating to Lockhart (the closest small town to where we live) and the surrounding areas. Large tracts of land here in Caldwell county could be had for a tenth the price and land speculators and developers were busy buying-up land for near-term subdivision and longer-term investment. Soon, county planners were inundated with proposed communities and homes began springing up across the predominantly rural landscape. Wildlife was pressured into relocating to areas not yet touched by heavy equipment and land clearing machinery. Also happening during this same period was the steady influx and proliferation of feral hogs, which will eat just about anything, including choice morsels of rattlesnake. The third environmental change to affect the region was the tremendous rise in the Mexican eagle (caracara) population flying overhead. Their historic northernmost range had, up to just ten or fifteen years ago, been two counties to the south. Rattlesnakes weren’t the only snake species impacted by all of these changes and copperhead densities were also on the rise along with a dozen species of nonvenomous snakes. This part of Texas happens also to be the westernmost boundary of the copperhead, which is surprisingly abundant. And, of course, the nearby San Marcos River just so happens to be the westernmost boundary for the cottonmouth, aka, water moccasin. If you’re a lover of North American venomous snakes and nonvenomous snakes of all manner, this is a great part of the country to find them in unusually high densities.

When combined, these environmental changes to historical rattlesnake habitat have seemingly created a shift in the rattling instincts where, with so much newfound pressure, the rattlesnakes began a decline in the times they chose to rattle because, when doing so, they were giving away their positions which could mean being shot on sight, getting gobbled up by hogs, or attract attention from above and find themselves on today’s menu for several caracaras flying overhead. Like all birds of prey, red-tailed hawks have incredible eyesight and will also dive-bomb an unwitting rattlesnake . This change in rattlesnake behavior, rattling far less often, took less than twenty years to genetically take hold. Again, this is the primary theory related to the change held by people who have lived in this area for several generations.

In our time here, we have had as many as four dogs at a given time and two have felt the sting of an envenomation to the face. One bite to our young (less than a year old at the time) black lab-mix, Josie, proved to be non-life-threatening, though we still had to endure not only the fear of losing a beloved friend, but veterinary treatment for rattlesnake envenomation is extremely expensive. Another involved our prized Australian kelpie dog, named Kelpy by my then six year old daughter, who took the worst hit possible and spent three or four touch-and-go days in professional care. That dog meant as much to my wife and I as many people’s children do to them. It was an extremely scary and anxiety-filled experience, one that I would not wish upon anyone.

My first order of business during our numerous moves has traditionally been to build a nice dog kennel. When we moved here, we had two medium sized dogs so the kennel was a roomy 24′ x 32′. Later, when our two dogs had grown older, we took in two larger dogs and I expanded the kennel to a whopping 48′ x 82′. We referred to it as the “Taj Majal”. But long before the new dogs, it would become abundantly clear that I had to do something to keep my dogs and wife as safe as possible. The learning experience in terms of our dogs came the hard way when Kelpy took a big hit on a cold and blustery Christmas night (when virtually any other snake would have been tucked inside of its den) inside the relatively “safe” confines of the kennel. I was in our loft playing guitar with her by my side when Sage, our wonderful chow-mix called out with her five-alarm bark and Kelpy flew down the stairs and out the dog door, crying out with a single yelp before flying back in. Sage was still out there barking but, wisely, not getting too close. After quickly examining Kelpy, I immediately saw the telltale fang marks and blood beginning to trickle just below her left eye, missing the eye orbit itself by less than half an inch. I grabbed my handgun and, after having Sage revealed the location for me, I shuttled her indoors for my wife to examine while I went right back out and unloaded an entire clip from my 9 mm into the snake. My sense of defending my family had taken over, so it was certainly a case of overkill. It was a thick-bodied, five-and-a- half-foot female searching for her denning site which at that time (before I had sealed-up access to the crawlspace and the latticework under the front porch), the area beneath the porch provided access to the crawlspace which had served as a major denning site (unbeknownst to us) before we ever bought the place. The house, barn, and four acre property sat idle and surrounded by hundreds of acres of undeveloped ranchland, between completion of the home in early 2013 and when we moved in during February of 2014. I left the snake there as we feverishly made our way into town to meet our vet at her facility. Bless her heart for putting herself on call for the most sacred of holidays. I carried Kelpy in and stayed with her for as long as our vet would allow and came back first thing the following morning. I arrived at 6:30 AM and she opened the door for me. By then, Kelpy was in sorry shape with her head and neck swollen to virtually twice their normal size. She had been treated with three vials of anti-venin and horse plasma (horses have evolved to have a substantial resistance to rattlesnake venom, but they are not nearly immune). Though I would have had no way of knowing that a rattlesnake, or a snake of any kind would be roaming around on a chill Christmas night with a cold rain mixed in, I felt responsible for the incident, and the sight of seeing my cherished dog in such utter distress made me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t get the thought that I was somehow responsible out of my head. In any other place I’d lived up to that point, a well-built kennel was all that was necessary to keep my dogs out of harm’s way. She would spend three more days in the hospital recovering. Immediately after the ordeal, I went down to the local farm and ranch supply house and purchased a few rolls of 24″ x 1/4″ mesh to surround Kelpy and Sage’s kennel and used the material to secure the open latticework under the front porch. Later, when we adopted Josie and Jett, our sibling male and female pair of black lab-mixes and I built the large kennel addition, I wrapped the same bottom two-feet with 1/4″ mesh. Since then, we’ve had one incident where a young (less than two-feet) but still dangerous copperhead found its way through a slit in the mesh that I must have unknowingly hit with the edge of our large field field mower which is designed to be pulled behind an ATV or small tractor. I couldn’t believe it! The young snake must have wandered along the kennel fencing until it happened upon a slight tear. The chances…geez!  Josie, who is now “snake-wise”, came across it one evening last summer and barked her own “five alarm” bark and literally came in to get me to see what the fuss was about. I took care of the snake and that’s the only time in the ten years since I started using the mesh when a snake slipped its way through our defenses.

It has taken me twelve years of steadfast work to carve our property out from the surrounding wild and overgrown lands which have proven to be absolutely perfect Western Diamondback habitat with a vastly inordinate snake density rarely encountered elsewhere. Where there was nothing but brush and enveloping weeds with little quality native grass, there is now restored Central Texas prairie which gets mowed regularly to keep the snakes from once again getting a toehold and overrunning the place just as they had when we bought the place, named Lonesome Dove by the builder. There is now a well-worn trail that follows the boundaries of our property on all four sides and this trail gets used many times a day to walk the dogs and allow them to mark their territory. I keep the trail mowed such that there’s at least ten feet on either side where the grass is kept short, along with keeping the remaining parts of our property mowed regularly. Snakes don’t like crossing open ground, so the trail helps serve as a barrier to keep more snakes from finding the property’s inner-sanctum. I’ll do whatever is necessary to protect my family and have spent far more time on this one very imminent threat than I care to remember. I’ve spent time in grizzly country and would choose potential run-ins with them to being forever on guard searching for a threat that is virtually impossible to see. That is, before it’s too late!

As for me, it seems that I am out and about working on our property all too often and exposure to a potential bite is much higher than I would prefer, but when I’m using things like our push mower to mow under the limbs of the trees, or the brush cutter, chainsaw, ATV and utility trailer, I can’t help but from looking out for my personal safety and, where applicable, I put on a very good pair of snake boots or below the knee gaiters and thick leather hiking boots. I also take this precaution when I take the dogs for a hike on the trails of the nearby state park where I’ve had several encounters. Nonetheless, I’ve still had more close encounters that I can remember and remain alert at all times. These are not the immersive, relaxing hikes and trail runs I had in Colorado where the chances of an encounter with a creature of the venomous kind were far more remote, particularly during the winter months. These animals are incredibly well camouflaged and difficult to differentiate from the surrounding fallen leaves, rocks, and forest floor, but I’ve engaged in the serious game of finding them before I walk right over one (which I’ve done) for many years now. Paradoxically, it is their evolutionarily perfect patterns that my eyes have been trained to pickup on. The only way I can explain it is to say that my eyes must now find their markings to be “too perfect”. During the times of year when they’re most prevalent, I’ve learned to take a proactive approach and regularly go out “snake hunting” when it gets just warm enough in the morning for them to find a hidden place in the sun to warm themselves after the cool of the night. Better to find them before they unwittingly find us.

About six months ago, I had my closest call to date. I was out in the barn’s carport working on the ATV. There were several maintenance issues that I was performing at the same time and I had the machine pretty well stripped down, creating a couple of piles of fairing and parts. I was having particular trouble removing the CVT belt (the drive belt) without a couple of tools designed expressly for the task, using only my hands and fingers to turn the assembly and have the belt slide off. It just so happened that I’d enlisted ten minutes of help from our A/C tech who was finishing up with the annual spring checkup on our system. He was kind enough to offer his “second set of hands” and we pulled the belt in no time. Just as we were patting ourselves on the back for making short order of the job, the guy spoke softly while informing me of the very particular predicament I was in. I had donned a pair of cushioned knee pads to do the work and directly under my left knee I had a small, coiled rattlesnake pinned between my knee and the ground. He must have crept into the area where we were working while I had gone from standing to kneeling. It was the knee pad that not only provided enough cushion that I never felt the snake attempting to move beneath me but also kept me bite free. I stood up slowly and took two quick steps back. The snake didn’t appear to be all that “rattled” and that must have meant that he wasn’t in much discomfort. The floor of the carport consists of a layer of fine cedar chips which are pretty soft to walk on and work from. His tail had been free but he never rattled in the ten, or so, minutes he must have been pinned. Our A/C tech had a look of complete disbelief that such an uber-close encounter could have happened as I reached for the short sledgehammer I happened to have nearby and put a humane end to the snake. Not a second later, I was consumed with guilt over what I had just done. While having ample opportunity to bite, he chose to remain still as his best defense. Over the years and due to our rare set of circumstances with the sheer density of snakes with whom we have shared our property, I’d had no choice but to kill them on-sight lest they eventually have a future run-in with a member of our little family (perhaps after they’d grown much larger and were all the more dangerous). I simply couldn’t take that risk. Plus, the naturalist in me knew that the population was way out of control and needed some serious tough love. It would have been highly dangerous and impractical to have tried to capture and relocate each of them someplace nearby (fifty-plus times and counting). I’d have only been increasing the snake density on some neighboring ranch owner’s property.

Finally, after twelve years of living here in a place we love just as it were a living, breathing member of our family, we are enjoying our time in a way we were never able to before. All I can figure is that, at least on our property, rattlesnake densities are much closer to what would be considered normal. In those twelve years, a number of other homes have sprung up nearby and the building activity would have pressured a lot of the rattlesnakes in close proximity to us to move on. There’s still plenty of undeveloped wildlife habitat near us, so I don’t think it’s caused the rattlesnakes and copperheads much difficulty. But in a year like 2016, the time of Kelpy’s envenomatiom, when I killed as many as four or five per month for several months, I was never afforded the opportunity to simply relax while being out on the property. I was responsible for the health and safety of my family, a job that I took very seriously, and I was always out of balance with my feelings about having chosen this place as our next home. I had always lived in rural country and knew there would be a fair share of “creepy -crawlies” here, but never in my wildest nightmares did I think this kind of venomous snake density was even possible.