If you get bitten, use a tourniquet to stop the venom from getting to your heart.įalse, most of the time. So if you're making a lot of noise, they're just going to hunker down and hope that you don't see them."ħ. "But others will rely on camouflage - like rattlesnakes and copperheads. "Some snakes, like racers and coachwhips, will crawl away if they feel threatened," Steen said. Plus, snakes are a diverse group, so it's difficult to generalize. "But they can feel vibrations through the substrate extremely well, so if you are treading very heavily, snakes might feel the vibrations through the ground." For one thing, "snakes lack external ear openings and are deaf to airborne sounds, so they won't hear or be afraid of pure noise," Beane said. And if the snake seems agitated, walk away.Ħ. It’s okay to appreciate wildlife in its natural surroundings, but stay at least six feet away from it – the further away you are from the snake, the more the snake will appreciate it. They will defend themselves if they feel threatened, but if we leave them alone, they'll leave us alone." That means that, if you encounter a snake in the woods, you should observe it from a distance. "They view us as a potentially dangerous predator. "We're a lot bigger than they are," Steen said. However, "they definitely do not want anything to do with humans," he added. Snakes may sense humans as a threat, but they "don't have the same concept of fear that humans do - so in that sense, they are not particularly scared of humans," Beane noted. Snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them. People don't see them as much, so think they're not as active."ĥ. In the summer, when it's really hot, they're more likely to be active at night. "In the autumn, they are looking for mates and traveling to their hibernation refuges. "In the spring, they're coming out of hibernation and foraging and seeking warmth, making them more visible," Steen said. "Some snake species are highly seasonal in their activity others are active all during the warm season," Beane said.īut the copperheads that are common in the eastern and southern United States do show seasonal patterns in activity. Snakes are most active in the spring and autumn. "Their bodies are not very well designed for climbing," Beane added.Ĥ. When in pursuit of prey, they may climb onto low-hanging branches that are only a few feet off the ground, but that is not common behavior. "Normally, they don't have any reason to climb trees," Beane said. "Basically, don't mess with venomous snakes, no matter what age they are," Steen said.įalse. "It would be possible to receive a worse bite from a juvenile snake than from an adult of the same species on a given day and, on another day, a worse bite from an adult than from a juvenile." "Any snake bite can vary greatly in the amount of venom injected," Beane said. "Adult snakes can have more venom than juveniles."Īnd not all bites are the same. "Adult snakes are as dangerous, or more dangerous, than a young snake," Steen said. Some people mistakenly think that baby snakes are more venomous either because they can't control how much venom they inject, or because their venom is more concentrated. Copperheads and other snakes are more venomous as juveniles.įalse. "It might be hard to find a place anywhere within their geographic range that wasn't within a mile or so of some kind of water source," said Jeff Beane, the reptile collections manager at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.Ģ.
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