Close X
Monday, November 25, 2024
ADVT 
National

Who You Gonna Call? Alberta Rattlesnake Wrangler Keeps Serpents, Citizens Safe

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 24 Jun, 2019 05:31 PM

    LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — One rattlesnake got caught in freshly laid tar under someone's stairs.

     

    Others typically get twisted and trapped in garden netting.


    Ryan Heavy Head comes to the rescue of both the vipers and the terrified homeowners.


    "I call myself a rattlesnake wrangler," says the 47-year-old, who runs a rattlesnake mitigation program in Lethbridge, southeast of Calgary.


    He's also on call with the program's rattlesnake hotline, which runs April to October.


    The line gets anywhere from 60 to 170 calls a year, and the number has been rising along with new housing developments on bluffs above the city's river valley.


    Heavy Head estimates there are about 600 rattlers living along the deep ravines and coulees of the Oldman River.


    A deserted area that was once a dump with half-buried slabs of concrete has become a rookery where female snakes gather before they give birth.


    "It's just like snake heaven," says Heavy Head as he carefully walks through the area. He's wearing open-toed sandals, a short-sleeved T-shirt, camouflage shorts and a hat.


    Without hesitation, he approaches one snake with a short stick and lifts it up off the ground. The distinctive sound of its shaking tail doesn't phase him.


    "I've got to be careful because I'm still within the strike range and if she were to pull back — she's coiled tight enough — she could lunge her body at me," he says.


    Heavy Head manages to get the snake into a long, clear plastic tube so he can get a closer look.


    "She's got golden eyes. You see those eyes? They're dragon eyes," he says admiringly.


    Heavy Head, originally from Oregon, says he loves snakes. He got his first pet snake, a boa constrictor, when he was eight.


    After a stint in the United States army and completing a degree in cultural anthropology, he took over the Lethbridge rattlesnake program.


    One recent hotline call came from the University of Lethbridge, where some small rattlers had worked their way through the vents and into a maintenance room.


    Heavy Head put them in a dark case made out of strong plastic that attached to his backback. He then returned them to a den in the area.


    Dogs are most at risk of being bitten. Rattlesnake bites in humans are rarely fatal, he says.


    He recalls how one woman learned the hard way how quickly a snake reacts. She was in her yard with her husband, who was using a lawn trimmer. Because the machine was so loud, she didn't hear the warning rattle of a nearby snake.


    "She reached under a bush and put her hand right on the snake and it bit her," he says. "By the time she travelled to hospital she said her hand was like a lobster claw."


    Heavy Head says the size of the snake doesn't matter.


    "They've got the same venom, so it still hurts."


    So far, he hasn't been pierced with rattlesnake fangs.


    "But I am going to get bit eventually."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    More Bears Entering Human Environments This Spring: Conservation Officers

    More Bears Entering Human Environments This Spring: Conservation Officers
    VANCOUVER — The BC Conservation Officer Service is reminding residents to brush up on bear safety after had a spike in conflict calls this spring.    

    More Bears Entering Human Environments This Spring: Conservation Officers

    Premiers' Demands On Environment Bills An 'Unhelpful' Threat To Unity: Morneau

    OTTAWA — The federal Liberals say it's conservative premiers who are putting Canada at risk in a fight over oil and the environment.

    Premiers' Demands On Environment Bills An 'Unhelpful' Threat To Unity: Morneau

    China Lashes Out At Freeland Over Response To Protests In Hong Kong

    OTTAWA — Protests raging in Hong Kong are threatening to become yet another irritant in Canada's fraught relationship with China.

    China Lashes Out At Freeland Over Response To Protests In Hong Kong

    Baloney Meter: Is Elections Canada Biased In Favour Of Liberals, As Tory Claims?

    Baloney Meter: Is Elections Canada Biased In Favour Of Liberals, As Tory Claims?
    Pierre Poilievre has had Canada's elections agency in his crosshairs for years.

    Baloney Meter: Is Elections Canada Biased In Favour Of Liberals, As Tory Claims?

    Low Levels Of THC In Marijuana Don'T Increase Crashes: Study

    Dr. Jeffrey Brubacher, associate professor in the department of emergency medicine at the University of British Columbia, said the findings apply to THC levels of less than five nanograms per millilitre of blood.

    Low Levels Of THC In Marijuana Don'T Increase Crashes: Study

    Health Officials Warn Of Possible Measles Exposure At Vancouver Airport

    VANCOUVER — The BC Centre for Disease Control is warning that travellers at Vancouver's airport on Sunday may have been exposed to measles.

    Health Officials Warn Of Possible Measles Exposure At Vancouver Airport