Below is footage taken by Me showing a copperhead Mike and I stumbled upon this spring 2011. See also entry for Hemlock Overlook Herp Survey. All animals are wild and viewed in their natural habitat.
Care is taken to avoid injury to the animals and ourselves any animals that are momentarily captured are released unharmed. WE DO NOT COLLECT ANIMALS FOR PETS NOR FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC.
Above footage is a Copperhead stalking its meal- a green frog.
above footage is Mike Gregory preparing to take pics of our discovery.
Below are several shots of Fairfax County’s finest Naturalist safely removing two copperheads from garden mesh netting. Its a delicate procedure obviously no one wants to get bit but Tony Bulmer and Jim Dewing’s team work prove to be a success. Both snakes survived the ordeal and were released back into their habitat.
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Above Tony and Jim prepare to remove the snakes
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Above: Message posted on side of container from animal control warning of its dangerous contents.
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Jim and Tony (with big smile on his face) seem to enjoy their job
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Takes a steady hand and good teamwork to successfuly remove these animals without injuring them and of course not to get bitten too.
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Every year we receive snakes trapped this way either in sticky traps or garden netting as seen here. For some snakes they are lucky enough to be delivered to us for careful removal. However we dont know how many are killed from entrapment or by homeowners simply because they are snakes.