Timber Rattlesnake in Upstate NY!

[Alkaurkharim]

My mother's friend was recently out camping with her sons up in the Tongue Mountain in Lake George, NY when they came upon a dead snake in the road. They decided to pack it in their cooler and bring it home. She called a friend of hers who is in animal control, and she described it to him, and he told her its a Timber Rattlesnake O_O N.E.R.D has a big thing about Timber Rattlesnakes being extremely rare on almost Extinct cause they take 9 years to reach sexual maturity. The guy said in all the time he's been doing his job, he's never seen a Timber just out in the road like that, its too bad it got ran over T_T Just thought someone might be interested in this.

[led4urhead]

That is too sad. I see them around here all the time, but then again .. i'm out acutally looking for them. I've always been facinated with rattlesnakes since i was a little kid. Timber Rattlers are by far my favorite among them. I live in a very mountianous region of MD, and we have them around here. They were the first snake i ever saw in the wild. I've never actually touched one, but i've had some close calls with them while out field herping. They are by far my favorite snake.

[Bambi]

Hey Carson,

How often do you go field herping? I love to go field herping, however my mom had knee surgery in Sep. and won't let me go by myself. So now I can't even go to the state parks to go herping :cry: If you ever feel like having someone tag along, i'll go with ya!

[Alkaurkharim]

I have a question. Seeing as it died from "natural causes", natural being squished by a car, is it ok to keep? She currently has it in a cooler on ice, but she was also wondering if it is illegal to keep in its current state, which is dead o_O. She was also wondering if it is illegal to get them stuffed and mounted by a taxidermist, seeing as its such a rare snake?

[led4urhead]

I would definitely look into local laws on that Alkaurkharim. Your local Department of Natural Resources office should be able to let you know about that.

Bambi .. i try to get out at least 3 times or so a month. I love spending time in the outdoors, and a good many of my field trips envolve a nice weekend camping. If you're up for it, we'll have to do that sometime.

[Kara]

Thx for posting this! New York is one place where Timbers still have seemingly viable populations & are protected...and by protected I mean state agencies actually DO something to prosecute folks who do anything with these animals that they shouldn't.

If you could e-mail me with any additional info (i.e. what road they were on, etc) I'd love to try to pinpoint the location.

Shame to hear it was a DOR, but thanks for passing on the info!!!

K

[Bambi]

Sure i'd be up to it. I've never been camping before, sounds like fun! I am an avid outdoors person myself. I have horses boarded in Baltimore County (hence my screen name), so i'm never really inside so to speak. I'm always at the barn

[Alkaurkharim]

Oh yeah, I forgot that you were part of NERD KLG ^_^;; You guys love to hear about Timbers!

The only info I have right now is, it was in Lake George, NY on Tongue Mountain somewhere. I'll have to ask my mother's friend if she remembers what road it was on. KLG, this friend isn't doing something she shouldn't is she? All she did was collect it off the road and is keeping it on ice. She didn't know it was a Timber until yesterday o_O

[matt00317]

I'm goin up to Lake George tomorrow, and stayin for the week

[wendy]

i know this is a little late but i feel the need to add my 2 cents......i don't know where NERD got thier info about being rare, nothing against nerd(they have pretty cool sh%t,) maybe they are just rare in NY cuz i am down here in pa se of the pocno mt's, and we are swarming with them. yellow phase(my favorite) and dark phase. even as a kid my dad unfortunatley killed them and we ate them (tastes likke chicken)and i got to take all the rattles in for show and tell at skool.
i have them all over the mountains here but in like regions, you won't find them in the valleys but you will find copperheads there. it's funny, i was @ the hamburg reptile show on the 7th talking(arguing) with some people that do the round ups, and they even said they are plentiful. i have seen litterally hundreds of both colorphases here over the years. i used to mess with them some are more agressive than others, some you really have to molest to keep them rattlin'. i know a guy that knows a guy that that collects gravid females and he got a couple albinos and released the rest. he figures they will only die in the wild. we got plenty of um over here, like i said regional, up the broad mountain, over in jim thorpe, gleninoco falls, pocono mountains, and like east of rt 81 you will find them but not in the valleys except for along the lehigh river. no bs they are pretty plentiful, it might be true they take a decade to mature and reproduce, i have never kept them nor bred them. but i have found about 85% more adults than babies. so that tells ya something right there.