HUNTINGDON COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) — Summer is upon us and people are spending more time outdoors near lakes and streams.
Some locals are taking to social media to report seeing more snakes than usual around the water.
6 News spoke with some snake experts about whether there's any truth to that.
Is the population of some snakes actually growing?
"Um, not necessarily,” says Raystown Lake Park Ranger Jenna Conner. “We have seen posts on social media, and I think that's where a lot of these things pick up traction. But we haven't necessarily noticed more ourselves. I will say that the snake populations in this area, naturally, just vary."It should be noted that not everyone in those comment chains on social media bought into the idea that the region's snake population is substantially growing.
Some people on social media speculate that the increased sightings have to do with dryer conditions.
These conditions supposedly bringing snakes, and their pray, to the shoreline.
"It's warming up, we're going to be seeing a lot more snakes in general,” said Alex Suleski, the Wildlife Program Coordinator at Shaver's Creek Environment Center. “The snakes do need water, and it has been a very dry season. So, it's possible they could be seeking it. And once you start seeing 'em, you start reporting them more."
Most snakes are harmless.
People often mistake the Northern Water Snake as a venomous snake, often confusing them with Copperheads.
Conner says the Northern Copperheads tend to have "a very distinctive hourglass shape on their backs,” also tending to have different phases of colors they can form -- like a brownish hue to sometimes a very bright orange.
"I think the water snake tends to look more like a Rattlesnake, as far as coloration and design or the pattern of them,” Conner says. “And they tend to be a darker color."
But that's not the only venomous snake you can encounter in central Pennsylvania.
"In all of Pennsylvania, we only have three venomous snakes of our more than 20 species that we have,” explains Suleski. “There's only two of them in this area, which are the copperhead and the timber rattlesnake."If you want to know a snake is venomous in Pennsylvania, Suleski and Conner say one way is to look for those slit pupils of venomous ones, as opposed to the rounder pupils of the non-venomous.
"Where a lot of our venomous snakes have sort of that triangular sort of head, a lot of non-venomous snakes that they feel pressured can puff their head out to try and mimic that to try and act like a venomous snake, as a sense of like protection for them," says Suleski.
But what should you do if you encounter one?
"The age-old trope that wildlife is more afraid of you than you are of it, is definitely the case, even with snakes,” says Conner. "If you do encounter a snake, it's really not hard, you know, just back away from it. Give it space. You have to remember that, you know, this is their home too."And if a snake should ever bite you, which is rare, they say go to the hospital and keep your heart rate down.
"You should never, you know, put your mouth on the wound area, on the bite area,” Suleski says. “That can make things a lot worse with infections and things. You shouldn't tourniquet it."
And there's one last thing to remember.
"Whether it's a venomous species or a non-venomous species, regardless, all of them are protected. So, you cannot kill a snake if you see it," says Conner. "They're just another wild animal trying to survive, like any other."
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