Next up is the winter body temps in the rock rattlesnakes (Crotalus Lepidus). The study site was in the northern Chihuahuan desert in the Indio Mt. research station. The snakes were collected in the summer and the transmitters were then implanted. They obtained body temps with radiotelemtry every other weekend. They wanted to see if there was a connection between the slopes and the body location. To judge temps they looked at both internal soil readings on the slopes as well as ground temps. They would begin hibernation in November and return in late march or early April. The southeastern slopes seemed to be the preferred location for hibernation. It was the warmest slope available, and at times the snakes were seen basking even as early as February. There were no signs of foraging but they only seemed to lose 10 percent of their body mass.

Lorraine McInnes spoke on the habitat use of WDB at Bosque Del Apache refuge in NM. Most common habitats are thought to be xeric habitats but there actually is a wide variety of their locations. They were surprised to see that they used more wetlands or marsh area rather than the typical desert look. They also looked at if they snakes chose randomly or intentionally.

Lorraine had no clue that rattlesnake research would lead to chest waders and kayaks to be added to her field kit. The used first time snake captures for the study and had a total of 275 captures. They were able to look at over 2,700 tracked land use. The habitat use was no random, but excessively varied. The marsh habitats and riparian wet wooded areas were again the most shocking. They even found snakes foraging in the cat-tails. A female was using the dense cat-tail mats as a den site. The study is ongoing, however, so perhaps more information will be known down the road.

Ed McGowan is going to chat on the predator-prey cycle for timber rattlesnakes. He started out with a DOR pic that showed a garter that had been run over by a car with its dinner of the frog ejected and the frog’s dinner of a caterpillar ejected and the caterpillar’s dinner of leaf matter exposed. He looked at a broad range for timbers in oak forests and he wanted to see why the breeding behavior was so in sync for such a broad location range. Finding that the game department has count sites and count date that coincides with the range of the timbers was a big break through. What is key though is the Mast (acorn) crop also runs with the prey items for the timbers. While the white oak didn’t correlate, the red oak did. They germinate a year after dropping because they have for lack of better words a longer shelf life. When the gypsy moths moved in, they caused massive defoliation and death to the oak trees. During the time that the gypsy moths were present, the gravid female counts hit a plateau.

After a lovely lunch break, hanging out and talking herps with friends both new and old, we are back for the afternoon sessions.

Bob McKeever spoke on shifts of habitat utilization in the White Sands National Monument as well as the abundance of the Diamondback, the Massasauga and the Prairie Rattlesnakes. Looking at his research and fieldwork in the 70s and comparing it to 2009. The numbers increased by 2009, however, the relationship of the Prairie and Massasauga did keep the same margins. The moist environment seems to be the very important part of the survival of the Massasauga.

One thing that is being seen in the time change is that they are the larger species. The one factor seems to be that larger snakes are more likely to be found hit by car. The species, both rattlesnakes and others, are diurnal which is the hours the park is in operation. Another factor is the fact that the species are also known lizard eaters and tend to stay around US Hwy 70 and the park entrance, there is a certain change in the survival rate of the animals living near the roadway.

Jeffery Mohr then chatted about the Timber rattlesnakes in Okalahoma who seem to exhibit the behavior of Prairies there. Showing the difference of two different field guides he showed the distribution differences and shared his more likely breakdown. The field guides are show that they live in woodlands and swamplands and really that was all it. The animals are showing up at OK rattlesnake round ups, and permit me to thank him for his lovely rant against round up. His procedures were to collect the animals in the den, hide the location of the den from round up folks and then insert transmitter. When doing research in the field, left to his own devices, the wily females tends to shoot away, leaving him to deal with the males. Finding that the rattlesnakes tend to avoid the deciduous forest and rather stick to the grasslands. Once they leave the den, they tend to hit that grass area. They still need the forests with the denning of the rocky outcrops, but they need the grassland to be happy.

I missed a few talks, having to sneak out for a few moments; post-lunch coma was kicking in. I got back in time for kingsnake.com bff and my travel mate for part of the trip, Bryan Grieg Fry, to talk on the origin and evolution of venom systems. A brief run-down on the venomous creatures of the world of vertabrates. Venom is basically made up of a variety of proteins that naturally occur but our bodies turn over them. Associated with the evolution of the fangs, a good number of the rattlesnake toxins are ancient toxins. By ancient he means 130 million years old! You also see areas of convergence of the proteins that pop up. He also explained how allergies to venom occur during work with the actual dried venom.

William Hayes is back up for another talk about the biology of venom. We know the the venom is, where it comes from and how effects, but there is little study on how the snake uses its venom. How much venom is injected with a bite and really can they control how much and if it is injected? Another myth that he looked at is baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adults because they can not control their venom use and that was disproved. Through a variety of studies, he is finding that snakes actually can think, he feels that snakes can in fact meter what they use venom wise. One of the most compelling points he made is even organisms have the ability to monitor their expulsions. To prove this he showed a study that proved worms altered the level of semen they used.

After the break, there was a talk on the common venom toxins and how they work. Of course I got caught up chasing a whip tail outside and watching him run, so I missed most of it.

Christopher Rex was up next on the effects of captivity and season on the composition of rattlesnake venoms. We know venom varies in species, location and age of the snakes. The question is will temps and humidity and even prey type change the toxicity of the venom. The first looked at Western Diamondbacks from the change of captivity and also prey. They housed 16 adults from Cochise County and studied them. They also looked at the change of seasons. Pulling venom the then freeze dried it to get a quick venom profile. There was a definite increase in a few of the proteins from captivity and also their was a decrease on the seasonal habits. One question he left open for future work is if the changes in the proteins will effect perhaps the milking of snakes for the creation of antivenom and if it changes the strength of that venom used.

Anthony Gandara was up speaking on the variation of the venoms of the Rock Rattlesnake. He looked at the differences between the subspecies of the 7 most common enzymes as well as several other tests. Quite a bit of variation was found, but really why? He feels that a lot of the variations are related to diet. One thing of note, this research also found that there may very well be a treatment of cancer as the proteins were successful in destroying breast cancer cells. Talks like this remind me why we need to help educate and encourage people to protect these species.

Sean Bush was up speaking on a case study. One of the major issues related to the use of Cro-Fab is that there is a recurrence of bleeding problems which are not always caught. “Bad outcomes are often death. Near-death, litigation and even worse.” One patient looked good post treatment but 2 days later was back with a platelet count of 1 and that should be well over 100. She bruised from her foot all the way to the middle of her chest. With the bad recurrences, Sean notices that the bleeding tends to hit the path of least resistance. The case study is a 16 year old male that had a snake bite to his right ankle. His labs on arrival showed he was ready start bleed out. He started vomiting blood as well as bleeding out. Cro-fab was dosed an hour after arrival and three hours after the bite. His numbers started to show improvement. He was dosed again, given transfusions and plasma. He started to level out and show that he was out of the woods. Dr. Bush was concerned that there would be a recurrence issue resulting is major bleeding so following the advice; he did a Cro-Fab continuous transfusion over a 24 hour period. They continued the infusion for 8 days. In this one case this seemed to have worked to prevent the recurrence issue. It has been also done again where they tested another dosing as well. There are a varieties of issues with this treatment, the issue could resolve, the cost levels is excessively his and also it requires hospitalization. Hopefully these other items can be looked at to help further the treatment process. The snake in question is possibly a speckled rattlesnake or more likely a northern pacific rattlesnake.

We headed out then as talks were running a bit late. There are, after all, Gilas to be discovered.