The western diamondback rattlesnake checked off a new portion of the map last November, making Denton County part of the species’ territory.
Greg Pandelis, the collections manager for the University of Texas at Arlington’s Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center, said an Argyle resident discovered the rattlesnake curled up in the garage in November. Pandelis said the adult female rattlesnake was doing what the species normally does in November: find a safe, quiet and undisturbed spot to hibernate.
And in fast-growing North Texas, it’s not out of the question for that safe spot to be in a house, a shed or a garage.
A snake relocation service contacted the research center to see if staffers wanted to collect the sleepy snake, and Pandelis said the answer was an immediate “yes.”
“This discovery was pretty exciting for us,” said Pandelis, who oversees the massive collection at the research center. “For decades, even hundreds of years, there have been scientists and herpetologists in Texas collecting specimens for research and making official records of the species occurring, yet there’s never been one officially recorded from Denton County.”
The research center is also a museum, Pandelis said. But it’s not an exhibition museum. Instead, thousands of amphibian and reptile specimens are preserved — many of them in jars — so that scientists and researchers worldwide can view and study them, and the data collected with them.
The center houses 597 western diamondback specimens. More than 400 of them originate from Texas counties. If you live, work or visit in Tarrant, Parker, Dallas and Jack counties, you’re sharing the space with diamondback rattlers.
Denton County joined the list when the citizen scientists discovered the rattlesnake on Nov. 6.
If you’ve watched a few old (or new) Westerns, you’ve probably seen a rattlesnake. The snakes — elegant creatures with brown, gray or pinkish bodies marked with darker, diamond-shaped blotches — are usually villains.
In a famous episode of The Rifleman, ”The Devil Makes Five,” the protagonist wakes to find a rattler deliberately put in his bedroll. The title character sweats bullets while his friends fail to smoke the snake out.
Pandelis said the discovery in Denton County is significant because the species is so common in Texas, which already boasts the most diverse snake species in the continental U.S.
“So this specimen is very important and interesting because it will reform our understanding of not just where the species occurs in Texas, but maybe even what its habitat requirements are and what its limits are, as far as where it can occur and where it can’t.”
Denton County is a unique location for the species, which prefers mountain and desert environments. Denton County is heavily wooded, Pandelis said, and the western diamondback usually avoids more wooded areas. The North Texas building boom has displaced a lot of native reptiles, Pandelis said, which can increase the odds of encountering animals that normally prefer to avoid people.
Pandelis doesn’t think the snake found in Argyle is an escaped pet rattlesnake. It’s legal to buy and sell western diamondbacks in Texas with the proper permit, and some people collect them as exotic pets.
But because the diamondback has a slow metabolism, pet rattlers are usually overfed and obese. Genetics can also point to captively bred snakes, too. In the U.S., pet diamondbacks are most often bred from Arizona and Texas species.
The snake found in Argyle adds to the center’s database and its knowledge about the species.
“Having this individual snake preserved as a research specimen is so important because it will fill a gap in our understanding of this species and will be used in studies being done on diamondback biology,” Pandelis said.
The research center collected genetic material and euthanized the snake for preservation. Pandelis explained that the residents of the home, whom he calls citizen scientists, and the snake relocator did the right thing.
“Just like these guys that, when they caught the snake and said, ‘Hey, it’s not actually responsible to release it right now. It’s going to die,’ that’s what led him to contact me,” Pandelis said. The snake was handled ethically before it was preserved.
Snake relocators and animal control officers will often take snakes to undeveloped areas and release them. But relocating the snake in November, he said, would have very likely killed it, because a snake in hibernation might not be able to find a second place before dying or being hunted by red-tailed hawks, coyotes or bobcats. Kingsnakes have also been known to eat rattlesnakes.
Pandelis advises Texans to observe snakes from a distance when they see them, and to learn which venomous snakes live in their areas.
If you discover a snake in a house, an apartment or a garage, call local animal control services or a snake relocator. If you see a venomous snake, such as a cottonmouth, copperhead, rattlesnake or coral snake, retreat and avoid handling it.
Pandelis said it’s a good instinct to want to protect children and pets from venomous snakes, but recommends seeking professional services to remove them from homes, sheds and garages.
Pandelis also encourages Texans to avoid killing nonvenomous snakes they might find outside.
“They are really beneficial,” he said. “Like the Texas rat snake, for instance. They help control the rodent population. And there are so many small, little snakes that live underground and eat worms. It’s not that uncommon for people, especially people who grew up in rural areas, to believe the saying that the only good snake is a dead snake. When I come across people like that, instead of shaming them, I share some cool facts about the snake. Most of the time, they’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ I find that that’s the best approach.”
LUCINDA BREEDING-GONZALES can be reached at 940-566-6877 and cbreeding@dentonrc.com.
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