Central Florida's Biologist

This morning we milked the two diamondbacks that we had caught the night before. Per Allyson’s request, I’ll explain more about how we milk the snakes, safely (using the Jason Strickland method), but please do not consider this explanation instructions for how to work with venomous snakes. Jason and I have years of experience and training under licensed professionals, and have each been licensed to work with venomous snakes (which requires a minimum of 1000 hours of training), so under no circumstances should you attempt any of the activities that we’re posting.

We place an individual snake in a bucket and select a clear, plastic tube that has a diameter just larger than the snake’s head (we purchased sets of snake tubes online). We then place an open end of the tube in front of the snake’s head and encourage the snake to enter the tube by tapping its back side written tongs or a hook. Once the snake enters the tube with 1/3 off its body, we press the tube against the bottom of the bucket to prevent the snake from reversing and pick up the tube from the bottom, holding two fingers on the tube and two in the snake, so it cannot move forward or backward in the tube unless we allow it. Then we slide the snake forward until the head just exits the far side of the tube, making sure that no one is near the head as we do so. Once the head is out, we allow the snake to bite into parafilm (scientists’ saran wrap, essentially) that is stretched over a sterile urine cup. The cup is held by a clamp on a ring stand, so no one is near the snake’s head throughout the procedure. To increase the amount of venom delivered, we depress gently on the venom glands (at the rear of the head) with a second plastic tube – the tube keeps us at a safe distance from the snake and has enough give so that we do not harm the snake when pressing on it.

After milking the snakes, we stopped for some delicious burgers at the Big Bend Ranch and Resort Cafe and then headed to the Big Bend National Park for some sight seeing. There are some great, scenic views there as well as some interesting gifts at the gift shop. We met an interesting guy from Debarry, FL who has been searching for mountain lions for years, saw a Fox run across a parking lot, and several neat birds.

Panther Junction Visitors Center

A neat warning sign with some fun stick figures

Wooden lighters... even the guy behind the counter was skeptical

Durable, collapsible wine glasses for those special times in the field

Great book

A scenic view with a dust devil in the distance

After Big Bend, we stopped in Terlingua at the famous “Porch” where locals and tourists share stories and cool off. The porch is a patio on the front of Terlingua Trading Company, a really neat store with all kinds of knick knacks.

The Porch and Terlingua Trading Company

They're magic

We then headed to a rest space on the side of the road to make dinner – lentils, carrots, chicken, and tuna (and too much garlic powder, apparently).

Jason, the roadside chef

Chicken, tuna, carrots, and lentils

We ended the day road cruising, where we had an exciting experience (trembling adrenaline rush, kind of exciting).  While driving along, Jason spotted a western diamondback in the other lane, and we saw a car flying down the road towards it (the speed limit was 70). We jumped out of the car (wearing our reflective vests and headlamps) and tried to flag the car to stop, to no avail. We watched in dismay as the car drove right over the snake. In a feat of ninja-like agility, the snake recoiled its tail toward its head (uncommon for snakes, they usually pull their heads back toward their tail when startled), narrowly escaping a tragic death. We found 1 more western diamondback, a kingsnake, a canyon wren sleeping, a mouse, and several tarantulas and scorpions (as always).

A Common Kingsnake, Lampropeltis getula

A very lucky Western Diamondback (Crotalus atrox)

One of many mice we've seen, I'm not sure which species

A large, unidentified snake skeleton

A Canyon Wren sleeping up a rock cliff

On the way back to camp, we were shocked to find an old friend was still traveling with us. We also stopped to see Luna’s Jacal, an old, small house made from mud and sticks.

Our hitchhiker! We though it was long gone, but apparently it's still along for the ride

Jason standing next to the jacal - a low, wooden house cemented with mud mortar that stays surprisingly cool in the desert heat

Since we were primitive camping, we made use of our dust bowl.

Thanks John!