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Though bitten, rattler expert remains smitten
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by tigers9 on March 16, 2008
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Seems like picking up snakes run over by cars is more dangerous than keeping them in terrariums as pets?
Z
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5623015.html
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Bruce Means handles an eastern diamond rattlesnake at the Coastal Plains Institute and Land Conservancy in Tallahassee, Fla.
SCOTT KEELER: ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
March 15, 2008, 11:46PM
THE SNAKEMAN
Though bitten, rattler expert remains smitten
Bruce Means eats snakes even when he is already full from breakfast. He wants to know everything he can about snakes, including how they taste.
The Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, the largest venomous snake in North America, interests him most. Because he can never bring himself to kill a rattler he looks for them dead on the road.
There is nothing wrong with eating a DOR rattler if it is fresh. "Rattlesnake is not bad," he tells squeamish gourmands. "It isn't as dry as chicken, and it's not as moist as frogs legs."
At 67, Means is considered the world rattlesnake authority, although he will tell you he has much to learn. He has crawled into their dens, spied on their mating rituals, watched them hunting and picked up thousands of live rattlers that frankly loathed his company.
In more than three decades as a scientist and biology teacher at Florida State University, he has written millions of words about them. Finally he is close to publishing what promises to be the rattlesnake bible, Diamonds in the Rough.
One caveat: His epic isn't in print yet and may not be if he suffers what he calls "another envenomation."
In 1976, his first wife accidentally drove her car over a rattlesnake.
Means rescued the injured snake and nursed it back to health. When Means tried to release it, it bit him on the right index finger.
Within four minutes his legs collapsed. At the hospital he went into a coma. Thirty-two vials of antivenin brought him back.
In 1993, he tried to pick up a nearly-4-foot-long rattler on an uninhabited island off the Florida Panhandle. The snake bit him on his right index finger. His instinct was to run, but he willed himself to walk slowly even as his legs grew numb. In 10 minutes he reached his kayak.
He somehow paddled a half mile where he had parked his truck. He dragged himself from the kayak to the truck on his belly, like one of his snakes.
He hauled himself behind the wheel and used his hands to position his legs over the clutch and gas pedals.
He drove in first gear to an office building a mile away and yelled for help. This time he received 26 vials of antivenin. For one awful moment he thought he was suffocating.
He spent nine days in the hospital.
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RE: Though bitten, rattler expert remains smitten
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by Cro on March 16, 2008
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Bruce Means has been promising his book "Diamonds in the Rough," for many years.
I sure hope he gets it finshed one of these days......
I also hope that Dean Ripa gets his new Bushmaster Book out sometime this year.........
Best Regards JohnZ
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