Watch police remove a 3.5-foot rattlesnake - and her 16 babies - from Texas work area
It’s always good to keep an eye out for slithery creatures during the blaze of a Texas summertime – just ask this police department.
The Manor Police Department came across a western diamondback rattlesnake and her 16 babies in a work area at the Sunstate Equipment Company on Highway 290 in Manor, the department posted on its Facebook page on Aug. 26.
“These snakes should never be handled and should be reported to Animal Control for removal,” Manor Police said.
Texas Parks and Wildlife suggests that if you were to stumble upon a snake, it’s best to just leave it alone, especially if you’re not sure whether the snake is poisonous or not.
“There are a lot of legitimate [incidents] where it’s hiding somewhere and people don’t see it, but a lot of bites occur when people are messing with snakes and they shouldn’t be,” said Paul Crump, a herpetologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, told KENS 5.
Baby rattlesnakes are not more dangerous than adult rattlesnakes, according to the Los Angeles Times. Babies actually “have less venom to inject when they bite,” University of California Davis conversation biology professor Brian Todd told the Times. But they CAN be more hazardous for a different reason.
“Younger snakes can be more hazardous because they’re small and hard to see, and because they are born without a rattle,” Todd said, according to the LA Times “The rattle grows each time the snake sheds its skin, so a baby rattler may not have shed enough times to give a warning before striking.”
The Manor Police Department told McClatchy News that the mother snake and all her babies were transplanted to a large ranch outside of Hutto, TX and reunited there.
Texas Parks and Wildlife says that only 15 of the 105 different species of snakes in Texas are, in fact, poisonous. The 15 are listed here.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Watch police remove a 3.5-foot rattlesnake - and her 16 babies - from Texas work area."