West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Rattlesnake Research

The Mountain State's official reptile is being studied in Eastern West Virginia

September 2, 2009
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

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Chuck Waggy, a biologist with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, is on a tracking mission. "I have individually marked about 160", says Waggy.

The biologist has a passion for rattlesnakes, timber rattlers that are all over our state. He's right in the middle of a research project that has him scouring the mountains looking for these magnificent creatures. His mission is simple.

"The main purpose of this study, right now, it will probably be modified in the future, is to locate the winter dens. We wanted to be able to find those dens because that's the headquarters for a snake, they stay there, that's their home base."

They'll head into their dens later this month, but right now, it's breeding season and that means the snakes are congregating here, up on a rocky mountain in the Eastern Panhandle.
We found about 8 or 9 in this one spot, now we have to get them out of the rocks and put transmitters on them so we can track their movements.

But first Chuck will put a transmitter on the snake, and a tag just under its skin. Keeping a transmitter on one of these snakes is still a work in progress. Waggy explains.

"We put it on with tachyderm tape, it's a surgical tape that breathes so the skin can breathe. It's like magnum Saran Wrap plus it has adhesive on it, it doesn't come off."

Tracking these snakes is a big part of the study, and Chuck says he's learning new things all the time.

"I captured one several years ago on private property and removed it at the land owner's request, but then I released it about 3/4 of a mile away. The next year, we caught it at the exact square foot we had caught it the year before," says Waggy.

Knowing where these guys are is key to Chuck's study, but there's a lot left to learn. He's still hoping to be able to track a female into a den and be able to find her next year, and with a little luck, this might be the right snake and right den.