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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A longtime snake researcher who made significant discoveries about the species since childhood died August 3 after being bitten by a rattlesnake in West Virginia.
When was Snake researcher William Martin bitten by rattle snake?
On August 2 William
H. “Marty” Martin was bitten by a timber
rattler, a captive snake on his property in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, The
Associated Press quoted his wife, Renee Martin.
The 80-year-old
researcher made arduous mountain hikes to document and count snake populations
in remote sites, according to Joe Villari, who manages the Bull Run Mountains
Preserve in northern Virginia and accompanied Martin on his outings there, The Associated
Press reported.
“He was in
his 80s, and he was hard to keep up with,” said Villari, who made it a point to
join Martin on his semiannual treks to remote mountain dens where the snakes
would live.
According to
John Sealy, a rattlesnake researcher from Stokesdale, North Carolina who knew
Martin for more than 30 years, Martin was perhaps the foremost authority on
timber rattlers, a species he studied since childhood, The Associated Press
reported.
Timber rattlers
Martin found
a population of timber rattlers in the Bull Run Mountain that was previously
unknown, and convinced a herpetologist to come out and verify the site. He was
a boy at the time.
Sealy noted
that Martin was known throughout the community of snake experts for his field
work and research. He was able to find and document species that are hard to
detect.
Snake bites - how many times for snake researcher?
This is not
the first time Martin had been bitten by a snake. Villari said timber rattlers
tend to be docile, as they avoid human contact and often won’t bite even if
they’re accidentally stepped on.