Snake Bites the Hand That’s Freezing It

Aveteran snake handler at the San Diego Zoo was bitten Tuesday by a venomous mole viper, the first such incident in the zoo’s history, officials said.

Charles W. Radcliffe, 48, who has worked at the zoo three years and previously handled snakes at zoos in Dallas and Ft. Worth, Tex., was listed in good condition Tuesday night in the intensive care unit of UC San Diego Medical Center. Hospital officials said they expect Radcliffe to be released today.

Zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said Radcliffe was about to put the mole viper into a freezer in preparation for feeding it to a poisonous red-headed krait from Southeast Asia when he was bitten at 9:50 a.m. Tuesday. Kraits feed on other snakes, Jouett said, noting that the mole viper is one of 20 “feeder” snakes that had arrived in a shipment from a private dealer from out of state.

“Our curator of snakes had never seen a mole viper in 29 years,” Jouett said. “He had to get a magnifying glass and count the scales on its stomach to be able to make a positive identification. The 20 snakes, including the mole viper, were not identified as to species or whether or not they were venomous. In fact, the mole viper looks exactly like two or three other species of nonpoisonous snakes.”

Jouett said Radcliffe was bitten on the index finger of his right hand, which began to “swell and hurt immediately after the bite.” Jouett said the zoo keeps a well-stocked supply of anti-venom for most poisonous snakes, but has no such serum for the mole viper.

Coincidentally, Jouett said the zoo was notified Tuesday by officials at the Mexico City Zoo that one of their handlers was bitten by an African puff adder, necessitating a shipment of puff adder anti-venom from San Diego to Mexico City, via the Tijuana airport. He said San Diego police rushed the anti-venom to Tijuana for the flight out.

Jouett said Radcliffe’s was the second bite a poisonous reptile had inflicted on a handler, the first occurring in 1984, when a Gila monster bit two handlers. But it was the first time a venomous snake had bitten a handler.