Rattled by Reptiles : As Snakes Stir in Spring’s Warmth, People Are in for Surprises

An uninvited guest slipped into the living room of William and Jan Brankin’s Simi Valley home the other day: a baby Southern Pacific rattlesnake.

Using thick leather riding gloves, William Brankin herded the snake into a bucket until he and his wife could relocate the wayward serpent to the hills above their Wood Ranch subdivision. Officials say the better course would have been to call in an expert.

The Brankins’ encounter was one of a number occurring across Southern California this spring as warmer temperatures draw snakes into the back yards--and sometimes the homes--of people living near the foothills and deserts.

Between April and October, depending on the weather, animal control officers and firefighters respond to thousands of snake sightings.

“The first rush of snakes are starting to show up,” said Bruce Richards of the Los Angeles County animal regulation office in Agoura Hills.

“We tell people to expect it because it’s going to happen,” he said. “It may be only one rattlesnake, but that may be the one that gets you.”

Jan Brankin, who has a 3-year-old son and baby-sits two other toddlers, said the children had played in the family’s back yard most of the afternoon before the reptile wound its way into the living room.

“It’s a little worrying, especially with small children around,” Brankin said. “But we’re encroaching on his land as much as he’s encroaching on ours. Just a few years ago this whole area was barren. We’ll be keeping a closer eye on the yard from now on, though.”

Already this season--the breeding period for rattlesnakes--Richards and his colleagues have responded to 11 rattlesnake calls in the hills around Thousand Oaks. They’ve answered another two dozen calls throughout their region, which stretches from Chatsworth to Topanga and west to Thousand Oaks.

Two rattlers were reported Wednesday in a man’s driveway in Topanga.

“He said they looked like they were dancing, but I know what they were doing and it wasn’t dancing,” Richards said.

Ventura County fire crews have responded to 21 calls, and Ventura County animal regulation workers have responded to at least a dozen more.

“The only reason we have this onslaught so far in Thousand Oaks is because the temperatures have been so summerlike,” Richards said. “That sends a signal to the rattlesnakes to come out from where they hibernate.”

California is home to four general varieties of snakes: rattlers, and gopher, garter and king snakes. The non-venomous garter, gopher and king snakes account for most of the 120 species that make up the four varieties.

Rattlesnakes--representing six different species--are the only venomous snakes in California. The most common by far is the Southern Pacific rattler, which grows to about six feet.

Hikers in Ronald W. Caspers Regional Park east of San Juan Capistrano have already reported several snake sightings this season.

“People usually see them along the trails, but they avoid them and the snakes slither back into the brush,” park official Gina Drury said. “We’ve had several sightings, but no bites.”

Experts say that animals are more often the victims of snakebites than human beings because they are curious and ignorant about the reptiles.

Last year, a horse died within 30 minutes of being bitten by a rattlesnake at O’Neill Regional Park in Orange County. The woman riding the animal told officials that the snake seemed to attack the horse.

“It was a very aggressive rattlesnake,” Park Ranger Ron Slimm said at the time.

One emergency room physician said he hopes this season is nothing like a year ago, when heavy rains increased the rat and mice populations--the favorite food of many snakes--and brought him a host of rattlesnake victims.

“We had a real run last year,” said Dr. Philip Macniel, an attending physician at UCI Medical Center in Orange. “At one point we had four (bite victims) in the course of three weeks. One of them was particularly ill and had to be put on life support.”

Snake sightings typically occur in the deserts and foothills--and in the housing developments that have sprung up next to them.

“Most of our calls are in Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Simi Valley,” said Sandi Wells of the Ventura County Fire Department. “They’re hot, dry valleys and we have a fairly large population of people in those areas.”

Wells said just one rattlesnake bite has been reported so far this season: a mountain biker in the Rincon hills north of Ventura who sat in a patch of tall grass.

“The rattlers really seem to be aggressive when they’re disturbed,” Wells said. “People should be careful when they’re hiking and stick to well-used trails.”

Southern Pacific rattlers, however, do not limit themselves to undeveloped open spaces.

Officials at the Burbank Animal Shelter routinely answer snake-sighting calls in the hills flanking the city. When they do, one officer said, they do not bother trying to relocate the snake. Instead, they hack it to death with a hoe or shovel.

“We respond immediately to the call, and the snake is dispatched on the spot,” said Senior Animal Control Officer Harold Hagler, who said the season so far has been somewhat slow with only a handful of reports.

“These mountains have all kinds of hikers,” Hagler said. “You can’t relocate a poisonous reptile to where a citizen could get bit.”

“If it’s determined to be a rattlesnake, we kill it on the spot,” Capt. Ken Maffei said.