It was Aug. 13, simply after midday, and wildlife biologist Brian Murphy was in deer-rich Morgan County, Georgia inspecting his treestands earlier than looking season.
“This can be a first—and hopefully a final—for me,” Murphy wrote in a Fb publish. “Over the previous 30-plus years, I’ve climbed out and in of numerous treestands and have change into accustomed to occasional undesirable friends together with wasps, spiders, raccoons, owls, and few different critters, however by no means a three-foot timber rattler.”
Murphy says he was 20 ft excessive in a tree changing a ratchet strap on a lock-on stand when he observed a snake looking at him from eye degree, simply 18 inches away.
“I had already been twiddling with the stand for a very good three to 4 minutes, with my palms in putting vary (of the snake) a number of instances,” wrote Murphy, vice chairman for company relations at Huntstand. “My first thought was rat snake, however then I observed the unmistakable form of a pit viper head and realized it was a ‘nope rope’!”
Murphy climbed down from the stand, discovered a tree limb, after which went again as much as flip the rattler out of the stand.
“Boy, would this have been hassle if it had struck my face whereas within the tree or if a hunter climbed in earlier than daylight and opened the seat to sit down down,” he stated. “Thought I’d nearly seen all of it in tree stands, however by no means even thought of the distant risk of discovering a rattler! Watch out on the market.”
Since rattlesnakes will not be recognized for climbing, how the snake acquired up within the tree and into the stand seat is a thriller which will by no means be resolved.
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Timber rattlesnakes are a venomous species of pit viper that dwell all through the East and Midwest. They will develop as much as 60 inches in size, however most are smaller. The species has a broad, triangular-shaped head and slender neck, a particular barred physique sample, considerably keeled scales, a grey to tan rattle with 1 to over 13 segments, and a single anal plate, in line with the Minnesota Division of Pure Assets. Timber rattlesnakes even have a sensory pit, seen on both sides of their head, between their eye and nostril. Their eyes have vertically elliptical pupils.
