The secret life of snakes: why these slithering reptiles are worth saving

ATLANTA — Georgia researchers are studying the secret life of snakes to try to save them from dying off.

Snakes play an important role in keeping us healthy.

In the middle of Georgia, in the middle of nowhere, it’s a perilous game of hide and seek.

“You have to constantly remind yourself they are a serious risk to your health, right,” said Dominic DeSantis, Ph.D. a biology professor at Georgia College and State University.

DeSantis, his team of volunteers, and Channel 2′s Berendt Petersen recently hiked into the woods searching for snakes in the 40,000-acre Cedar Creek Wildlife Management Area in Putnam County.

“You get bit, it’s a big deal,” DeSantis told Petersen. “It’s a trip to the E.R. for sure.”

So they watched their steps, all in the name of science.

“All of our projects out here are sort of centered on one big question. Which is: When and how and why snakes are just doing what they do?” DeSantis said.

Snakes have been with us since the beginning. They were in the Garden of Eden, every corner of the six continents, and the movie “Snakes on a Plane.”

Members of the research team are obsessed.

“Since I was a little kid, hyper-fixated. I always loved snakes,” said Elizabeth Noble, a graduate student at Georgia College and State University.

“Ever had one as a pet?” Petersen asked.

“No, my mom would never allow that,” Noble said.

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In this neck of the woods, they tracked the timber rattlesnake, and they don’t like what they’ve learned.

“It sort of makes me feel like I’m here at the beginning of the end,” DeSantis said.

The timberland rattlesnake is endangered in some states and extinct in others. It is on the decline in Georgia.

They found one of the snakes they have been following named Nugget.

“This snake is cool,” DeSantis said. “We are completely unashamed about naming our snakes.”

Cedar Creek has 20 snakes, each with a high-tech transmitter under the scales.

“We’re reading the tag we just implanted under the skin,” DeSantis said.

A device called an accelerometer tracks the serpent wherever it goes.

“And identify to the second when the snake is moving, immobile, mating or eating,” DeSantis said.

Twice a week, they catch and release as part of their research into what’s killing the snakes.

“The biggest among them is always going to be habitat loss,” DeSantis said.

There are fewer forests and more highways.

“We’ve observed on many cases a snake coming right up to a road, waiting there for weeks at a time,” DeSantis said.

There is also a skin disease.

“It has become really widespread. It’s an emerging threat,” DeSantis said.

Climate change is another factor.

“We just had one of the warmest winters around here on record. All our snakes came up to the surface and began foraging a month and a half earlier than in previous years. That has consequences, right?” DeSantis said.

On this day they went to find Joe.

Undergrad Amber Stubbs held a gadget they call a receiver.

“How does that work?” Petersen asked Stubbs.

“The receiver is picking up Joe’s specific frequency which is tied to his radio transmitter,” Stubbs said.

They hiked half a mile to find Joe.

“Oh, there he is. Right there,” Stubbs said, pointing out where Joe was.

“How many snakes do you think you have picked up in 12 years?” Petersen asked DeSantis.

“Oh gosh,” DeSantis said, laughing.

He said probably 1,001.

Joe is about 5 feet long, 5 pounds, and 30 years old.

The professor would not let Petersen hold the tube containing Joe’s front half, at least not when Joe was in it.

That turned out to be a good call. The snakes started thrashing around while inside the tube.

“It’s strong,” DeSantis said. “That’s why when they thrash, you hold as long as you can and then get them on the ground.”

The professor said if we lose Joe and more of his kind, rodents that spread disease will start to rule.

“They occupy this really critical spot in the ecosystem,” DeSantis said.

He compared ecosystems to airplanes. Each rivet is important. You can lose a few and it may not be a big deal.

“But eventually you’re going to lose a wing. When enough things are lost, you lose a critical part of that ecosystem and the whole thing is going to crash,” DeSantis said.

They wonder if Joe will still be in the woods during the next perilous game of hide and seek.

DeSantis said you can do your part by not killing snakes. If you see one, stay away.

If a snake gets inside your home, call a wildlife removal specialist.

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