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Massassauga rattler found in Pittsburgh:[Final
Edition] |
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People: |
Hodgson,
June, Bellamy, Karen |
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Author(s): |
Murray
Hogben, Whig-Standard Staff Writer |
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Article
types: |
News |
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Section: |
Community |
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Publication
title: |
Kingston
Whig - Standard. Kingston, Ont.: Sep 12,
1996. pg. 11.FRON |
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Source
Type: |
Newspaper |
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ISSN/ISBN: |
11974397 |
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ProQuest
document ID: |
297210011 |
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Text
Word Count |
673 |
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Article
URL: |
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Abstract (Article Summary) |
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"I bent
over to pick him up, thinking he was a garter snake, to put him out," [June
Hodgson] said, but she noticed it was a dark grey with big chocolate-brown
blotches. So Hodgson
went back into the house, got out her snake book and identified the snake as
a massasauga rattler. "It was a big snake," she said. [Karen
Bellamy] said that if it was a massasauga rattler it was "way, way way
out of its range. "They just aren't found here. If it was a massasauga
rattlesnake, it probably hitched a ride." |
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Full Text (673 words) |
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(Copyright The Kingston Whig-Standard 1996) Ran with
sidebar "Massassauga Rattlesnake" which has been appended to the
end of this story. A Pittsburgh
Township woman in bare feet last week nearly stepped on what she and a biologist
neighbor identified as a massasauga rattlesnake. June Hodgson,
who lives on Highway 2 at the township's eastern end, is a keen nature lover.
She knows snakes and usually doesn't think twice about picking one up - until
now. It was pitch
dark, Hodgson recalled, when she went to close her garage door for the night.
Although she knew the way very well, she reached around the corner to switch
on the light because she didn't want to step on the cats' mat at the foot of
the steps, in case they had left any dead field mice there. It was a lucky
thought. "When I
turned on the light there was a big snake on the mat," she said. "I bent
over to pick him up, thinking he was a garter snake, to put him out," Hodgson
said, but she noticed it was a dark grey with big chocolate-brown blotches. She thought it
was "really odd," so she decided not to pick it up. Instead, she
tried to nudge the snake out the still-open garage door with her hand, but it
slid in behind a bunch of shovels against the garage wall. Hodgson then
called to a visitor to come and have a look and as she was leaning over to
remove the last obstacle between her and snake, her guest noticed that it had
its head raised, was coiled to strike and was rattling its tail. So Hodgson
went back into the house, got out her snake book and identified the snake as
a massasauga rattler. "It was a big snake," she said. Queen's
University biologist Stephen Lougheed came over and confirmed the snake's
identity. By this time,
the snake had uncoiled and Lougheed nudged it out of the garage door with his
rubber-booted foot. The bite of a
massasauga rattlesnake can make a person quite sick for a couple of days,
Hodgson says, but isn't lethal like the western ones - unless the victim is a
child under 34 kilograms. "I just
wore my rubbers around for a few days," she adds, "but I think he's
gone back into the fields." That was
disappointing news for Karen Bellamy, the Ministry of Natural Resources
Napanee-based area biologist, who would like to have seen the snake. Bellamy said
that if it was a massasauga rattler it was "way, way way out of its
range. "They just aren't found here. If it was a massasauga rattlesnake,
it probably hitched a ride." Bellamy said
Hodgson's seemed to be the first report that sounded "legitimate." She said
actual deaths from massasauga rattlers are "very rare" but added
that about half-a-dozen people are taken to Parry Sound Hospital with bites
each year. MASSASSAUGA
RATTLESNAKE What:
Ontario's only venomous snake, also called the eastern massasauga, the swamp,
or the little grey rattlesnake Where: Usually
along Georgian Bay and its islands and inland from there, and on the Bruce
Peninsula, along some parts of Lake Huron and Lake Erie Appearance:
Broad head distinct from the neck but not a triangular head like western
rattlers, blunt nose, grey or brownish, rarely black, with a pattern of large
dark brown blotches down the middle of the back, and three rows of smaller
alternating blotches down the sides, with cross bands on the tail, ending in
a rattle Size:
Thick-bodied and up to 90 centimetres long, but usually smaller Beware:
Rattlers don't always rattle before striking nor coil before striking Habitat: Near
swamps and bogs to catch frogs or mice; can swim. Also found in rocky places
or fields If bitten: Go
to the nearest hospital or doctor familiar with snakebite treatment with
antivenin Symptoms:
Swelling and discoloration of bitten area, pain, nausea, chills, dizziness.
Seldom fatal with prompt and proper treatment. Source:
Ontario Snakes, Department of Lands and Forests publication.
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