by Kim Watkins
Biology student David Armes gently picked up a rattlesnake using a pair of metal tongs, placed it into a bucket filled with fluorescent powder, shut the lid, and shook the bucket around. After a few seconds the lid was opened and the snake was set free.
Not a typical spring activity for a student. However, for biology professor David Chesemore and his students, it is part of a very important study - tracking snakes with fluorescent pigments in their own habitats. (The powder is safe and does not harm the snakes.) Chesemore believes the study is the first of its kind tracking rattlesnakes with fluorescent powder.
During the spring semester, biology students in Chesemore's class capture rattlesnakes, mark them with fluorescent powder and then track their trails at night using ultraviolet light. The purpose of the study is to determine the home range and movement of the rattlesnakes. Home range is the area traversed by the snake in its normal activities such as food gathering, mating, and caring for young.
Another goal of the study is to determine how effective this new technique is compared to other more traditional observation techniques. Chesemore said his study found the technique extremely successful.
"We were able to track the same snake for two to three days. We know exactly where it went," said Chesemore. He noted that the fluorescent tracking method also was used in the past on black rats and kangaroo rats but the results were not as successful.
"The fluorescent powder on the rattlesnakes worked particularly well. Other specimens did not hold as much powder as the rattlesnakes," Chesemore said.
Chesemore said that snakes can be found anywhere from grass patches to hollow logs to people's homes.
"We've had reports of a few up in Madera Ranchos inside people's houses," Chesemore said. He added that the only rattlesnake found in the San Joaquin Valley is the Western Rattlesnake, sometimes improperly called a diamondback. (There is a diamondback rattlesnake in Southern California.)
Chesemore's advice for people who encounter rattlesnakes is simple. He said that if someone sees the rattlesnake, there's no problem. The person should simply back away from the rattlesnake slowly.
"I don't worry about the snakes I see. It's the one's you don't see that cause a problem," Chesemore said. He said that if a person is very close to a snake, it's important to stay very still because snakes strike at heat and movement.
To avoid snakes Chesemore said it's important to look ahead and not to reach blindly into bushes, rocks or logs. He said he has tracked rattlesnakes that go up into the bushes and shrubs in the foothills. Sometimes a snake's camouflage-like skin can make seeing it very difficult.
When Chesemore goes out tracking snakes, he is extremely careful and takes three students just to watch him watch the snake. "If I'm following a snake and really paying attention to his movements, I can't watch for other snakes in the area. My students flank me and act as my lookouts from all sides," said Chesemore.
Chesemore said the rattlesnakes can really get around, sometimes covering an area the size of a few football fields. "They really keep me busy when I'm tracking them on flat ground, like in the desert. In the foothills they tend to move from one rock pile to another."
According to Chesemore, few studies have been done to track rattlesnakes because of the difficulty and expense. "Using the fluorescent powder provides us with a cheap, reliable technique to use for this type of research," said Chesemore.
Chesemore said students, Marc Kalbaugh, Mike Crisco and David Armes, were instrumental in the success of the research. He plans to continue his rattlesnake tracking research and believes one of his graduate students will use the work for a thesis at Fresno State.
1. Determine if the snake is venemous.
Venemous snake characteristics:
2. If bitten, remain as still and quiet as possible.
3. Lie down and try to keep the bitten area lower than the level of the heart to limit the circulation of venom.
4. If the bite is on an arm or leg, bandage the limb a few inches above the bite.
5. Go to the nearest emergency room as quickly as possible.
Source: Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, 2nd edition.
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