Ratsnake Returned To The Wild After Recovering From Severe Injuries

FAIRFAX, VA — Bonnie Keller and Mark Khosravi, who volunteer with K2C Wildlife Encounters, LLC, received a call on June 5 from a Fairfax resident who had a snake in their backyard that they wanted removed.

"They described it as a large black snake," Keller said. "That right there, narrows it down to one of two species, both of which are harmless. We explained to them it was harmless, but the person just said, 'We're frightened of it. Please come get it."

Although K2C Wildlife Encounters has only been around for little over a year, Keller has been doing snake removals for about 20 years. The caller lived nearby, so she and Khosravi were able to respond promptly to the request.

"What he hadn't told us is that someone else had already tried to intervene, had put the snake in a black garbage bag, and had stomped on it," Keller said. "When we took it out of the garbage bag, that's when we could see that there were some massive injuries."

The female, eastern ratsnake had a torn jugular vein, a hole in her trachea, a protruding eye, numerous lacerations, and broken ribs.

Keller immediately took the injured snake to her home, rinsed it off, and contacted the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center in The Plains, Virginia. Bill Crisp, one of the other K2C volunteers, was able to take the snake to the center the next day for rehabilitation.

Last Saturday, K2C's four volunteer partners — Keller, Khosravi, Crisp, and retired wildlife biologist Kelly Geer — gathered near a trail in Clifton to return the recovered reptile to the wild.

"None of us really thought that she was going to live, but miraculously and through the skillful work of Dr. Jennifer Riley, the snake is now ready to be released," Keller said, on Saturday.

The group walked a few hundred yards down the path. Eventually, they came to a large tree several feet off the trail, and Keller draped the snake across the crook of two branches. The snake quickly slipped her way up the branch and away from the volunteers.

While many people are scared of snakes, there's only one venomous snake in this part of Virginia, the eastern copperhead, according to Keller. So far this year, K2C has responded to 260 requests to remove snakes from properties across Northern Virginia. Thirty-six percent of those have been for copperheads.

"If you just learn to recognize that one pattern, then you know that anything else that you see is harmless," she said. "If you see a snake and you don't know what it is, it's real simple. You turn around and you go the other direction. They're not going to chase you. They're not going to do anything to hurt you. They're more afraid of you than you are of it."

The eastern ratsnake, like the one K2C volunteers released on Saturday, is considered a beneficial species.

"Their main diet is going to be the rodents that would otherwise perhaps carry the ticks that cause Lyme disease," Keller said.

In Virginia, it's illegal to kill a snake unless you are in imminent danger.

"Just because someone is afraid of a snake doesn't give them the right to attack it," Keller said. "It could certainly be argued that if it was a venomous snake on your property, OK, but still you have the opportunity to walk away."