Timber rattlesnake.
Last fall I was invited to speak at a wildlife diversity meeting sponsored by the Ohio Division of Wildlife at Shawnee State Forest in southern Ohio. One of our field trips involved going out with a rattlesnake expert who
tracked timber rattlesnakes using radio telemetry. He had captured several rattlers and was fitting them with tiny tracking devices and releasing them. Before the snakes were set free, anyone who was interested got to hold one. The snakes were safely ensconced headfirst in a clear plastic tube. If you held the tail, they could not go forward through the tube, nor could they back out of the tube. It's about the safest way you could ever hold a venomous snake.
Venomous snakes give me the willies. It took every ounce of fortitude/turpitude/attitude/rectitude/stupitude to grasp the snake's tail and the tube and hold it for a few minutes. But I got-r-dun.
Thus, thanks to Shutterbug Science Chimp, we have a photo of me in a trancelike state, holding the snake tube.
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Timber rattlesnake.
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