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Rudy Komarek 1928 till 2008
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by jared on March 18, 2008
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It appears that Rudy Komarek, long time "cobra king" passed away earlier this month at his home in FL. This November Rudy would have been 80
Jared
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RE: Rudy Komarek 1928 till 2008
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by Cro on March 19, 2008
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Jared, perhaps the Cobra King is finally dead.
I say that because he was once in a coma from a Cobra bite, and the doctors were ready to write him off, and he came back.
For most of the folks here who do not know what you are talking about, this involves a fellow who over many years collected thousands of Timber Rattlesnakes from New York Rattlesnake Dens after the snakes were listed as endangered. He also published den site locations for sale on his web site.
Several Timber Rattlesnake researchers tried their best to get Rudy arrested for his illegal activities. This went on for years and years. They eventually succeded, and caused him to move to Florida.
One of the World's formost Timber Rattlesnake researchers, Dr. William Brown, sort of made it his personal passion to bring Rudy to justice and get him arrested, which eventually happened. However, there are many folks who think that Brown went overboard and got obsessed with the issue. I was not there, so I will not make a judgement on this.
Well respected folks like Dean Ripa published against Brown, stating that the decline of Timber Rattlesnakes was not the result of over collecting by folks like Komarek, but from habitat changes.
Timber Rattlesnakes were allready very endangered in New York, because of Bounty Hunting in previous hundreds of years, and the development of lands.
There is not a clear answer to this issue, as there are many sides. It is clear that Rudy collected snakes illegal to NY State laws.
It is clear that there were Rattlesnake researchers who tried to stop Brown's comments and keep him from going a bit overboard, and being obsessed with the issue.
Anyway, if you want more info, Google Rudy Komarek, and read all the various articles.
Some of our Northern members know a huge amount more about this, and can probably fill us in. There is still a lot of information about this issue that is not resolved.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Rudy Komarek 1928 till 2008
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by jared on March 20, 2008
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No he is dead for sure this time. Also , there is alot of confusion regarding rudy. He did collect, and from what I understand was the BEST timber rattlesnake hunter in the NE. As far as Dr. brown and the internet stuff, this was done as part of the wicked 'game'these two gents were playin. It is my understanding that Rudy put many of the reasearchers in NY on the densites only to be told that he could not return to them, as he was not in the researcher 'clique' (despite the fact he showed them where they were). It got to the point between the two that it became a personal grudge (most of rudys actual field collecting was done prior to this) and outta spite for being blocked from sites he had hunted for years, he posted the locations on the net and would even go as far as to leave postit notes on the rockpiles for the researchers to find, indicating what he had found there earlier that morning. I know his rep, especially on many of these boards, and personally i believe that most of his story has been told from one side, his opposition. Which happens ALOT in this community as well as others. My .2
Jared
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RE: Rudy Komarek 1928 till 2008
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by tigers9 on March 20, 2008
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Just as a curiosity, I often find it amusing when somebody who is into animals has an animal related name. Komarek is a very Czech name.
I am originally from former communist Czechoslovakia, which always consisted of 2 states but since I left, they officially separated into Slovak and Czech republics, with 2 similar but still different languages, Czech and Slovak. I am originally Slovak, but I understand/speak both;
Komarek in Czech means ‘little/small/tiny mosquito’
Komar is just generic mosquito in both languages.
I myself spent most of my European life in city called “Levice”, which in translation mean lionesses, and the historical sign of the city is a lion with 3 tails holding a red rose, so I am very attuned to these animal references.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Levice_erb.svg/102px-Levice_erb.svg.png
Z
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RE: Rudy Komarek 1928 till 2008
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by JSargent on March 22, 2008
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since he caught so many new york timbers...how come they seem so hard to come by? did no one use any for breeding projects or are people scared to admit they have NY blood line animals....with the animals being put on the threatened or endangered list, some folks would have started to establish and create captive born bloodlines(i would have thought)....
and did rudy ever get to publish any of his den sites or are they now lost forever?
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RE: Rudy Komarek 1928 till 2008
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by Cro on March 23, 2008
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Jamie, I do not think that the den-sites are lost, as the NY DEC knows of over 200 den-sites in that state. Many of these dens are monitored for population changes by Timber Rattlesnake researchers. Many others are very difficult to get to, on private lands, etc.
It is likely that some folks started captive breeding programs of these snakes back when it was proposed to protect them. However, Timber Rattlesnakes from those Northern areas do not mature until age 7 or 8, and then many are on a 3 year reproductive cycle, and often have small litters. It would probably not be worth the effort if someone wanted to try to reproduce them in captivity to try to sell them.
Also, very similar looking Timber Rattlesnakes could still be found in more Southern populations, in States were they were not protected. Those rarely make it to the market though. This reflects the extreme amount of work that it would take to find one of these snakes in its native habitat.
On a side note, some poaching still goes on in the far Northern snake populations. A DNA database is being compiled from samples from all of the various populations in the protected states. This will allow Law Enforcement folks to prove that a suspect Timber Rattlesnake did actually come from a specific Endangered population, and even which den it came from. That should do a lot to cut down on what poaching still goes on.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Rudy Komarek 1928 till 2008
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by BigBend66 on March 24, 2008
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He was a horrible person who's greed devastated the Horridus populations in N York and multible states. Some researchers say that he emptied 300 den sites, 100 in upper N York..
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RE: Rudy Komarek 1928 till 2008
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by Cro on March 24, 2008
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Collin, it sounds like you have some personal knowledge about Rudy and his poaching days.
It would be great if you could add to this story from your perspective as a retired DNR officer.
There are some folks who want to make Rudy a hero, and that is probably not justified, based on what I have seen and read.
I do believe that some folks in DEC went overboard in trying to catch his activities. However, I also believe that he did show the DEC folks many dens that he knew of in the early years, and was perhaps locked out of those dens by them as they started their research.
I have to wonder if some of the scientists did not create the adversary of Rudy, by leaving him out of the loop after he showed them dens.
Perhaps it would have been better for them to have hired him as an consultant to their ventures ??? His leaving of post it notes on den sites showed that he wanted to continue visiting dens. Perhaps they should have included him ?????
What do you say ???
Best Regards JohnZ
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