01/07/2006
Associated Press
This spring, visitors to Newport News Park can expect a new message on
parking signs: Beware of
cottonmouths.
Signs warning visitors of the poisonous pit vipers will go up in areas where
the snakes are known to live in the park, one of the largest municipal parks
in the nation. They'll provide educational advice in addition to warning
hikers to beware and not venture off the beaten path.
Rangers have known for decades that
cottonmouths have nestled into the
park's swampy corners. But they had no idea they had so many — or that they
were slithering so close to a remote, but viable, trail called the Wynn's
Mill Loop.
"It's not like you're going to walk out and step on them," said Michael
Poplawski, parks director, "but we're going to make people more vigilant."
Authorities have discovered the snakes are coiling up in decaying pine tree
stumps, dangerously close to where people may be out for a walk.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has not found
cottonmouths north or west of Colonial Heights, which is just south of
Richmond near Petersburg. In Virginia, most
cottonmouths — also called water
moccasins — are found south of the James River.
Poplawski has no record of any visitor reporting a bite from any venomous
snake in the 40 years since Newport News Park opened.
But the threat is real.
Cottonmouths are the hallmark of scaly critters in
the southeastern United States, turning up in plenty of campfire stories.
And they aren't exactly the type you keep for pets: One nicknamed Godzilla
weighs about 5 pounds and stretches nearly 5 feet.
"They're not aggressive, but they can be very defensive," explained Vinnie
Passaro, an environmental scientist studying the snakes.
He ought to know. The 28-year-old master's degree candidate from Christopher
Newport University earned a bite on the arm not too long ago after bothering
one of the animals.
So far, he's captured and released 74 water moccasins and estimates that
between 90 and 180 live in the park.
He's injected microchips into 53 snakes and has surgically installed radio
transmitters in two others. The devices let him collect vitals — size, body
temperature, reproduction cycle and habitat — he hopes can explain why some
cottonmouths survive so far north.
He has good news for people still hoping to walk, hike and exercise along
the trail.
"I've only caught one snake on a trail, and that's out of 96 captures now,"
Passaro said. "You have to go out and get them."
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