On Tuesday evening my reseach student, Eric, and I packed up all of my surgical supplies and headed to Johnson Co., KS, to implant some rattlesnakes. Animal Control, supervised by my friend and colleague, Jennifer, had recovered two courting rattlesnakes from a resident's backyard after they became entangled in landscape fabric. We were asked to come out and implant radio-transmitters in these two so that they could be released and their movements tracked by radio-telemetry. This picture shows me suturing up a very large male. Actually, Timber Rattlesnakes aren't NEARLY as huge as people think - he was one of the largest males we've caught and he was only 3.2 feet long and weighed just over 2 pounds! The other snake was a big, pregnant female (rattlesnakes give live birth), so we were extremely careful with her. Both of them recovered well and are doing great. They will be released later this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment