(upbeat music) Hello everybody, and welcome to Naturally Wild.

My name is Steve Wildman Wilson.

I serve as your host right here on Naturally Wild each week.

Thank you so much for joining me.

You know Arkansas, the natural state, has so many outdoor opportunities.

I mean, hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, mountain biking.

And if you participate in one of those activities long enough, there's a pretty good chance that you're going to run into a snake or two sooner or later.

I know later better than sooner, right?

Hey, but it's not a matter of if you do.

It's more of a matter about when you do.

Hey, let me take a pause right here.

First of all, I want to say a special thanks to everyone in here in the studio that came in to work today to do this show.

I mean, when I, when I first told them I was going to have live snakes in the studio, I wasn't real sure we're going to have enough crew members to show up.

They're not real crazy about live snakes.

Some of them are, but in fact, I even heard one of them mentioned something about the only good snake is a dead snake.

Now I'm not so sure my guest is going to agree with that tonight.

Let me introduce you to him.

His name is Eric Maynard and he is assistant chief of the Education Division with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Hi Eric.

Howdy.

Glad to be here.

Well.

I'm glad.

Hey, did you hear what I said?

One of the people, when I told him you was going to be here.

You've heard that before, though.

I hear it all the time.

And it's not true, is it?

It's not true.

Most of the time, those people just don't understand.

That's what.

That's what education is here.

That's education TV.

That's right, here on Arkansas TV.

We're going to, we're going to talk all about snakes.

He brought some live snakes here.

We've got some we're going to talk about some that's friendly and maybe some that's not so friendly.

Before we do that though, Eric, I want to tell folks a little bit about yourself and what you do at the Game and Fish.

Well.

I've been with Game and Fish since 1999, and I've always been in education.

Started off with one of the nature centers down in Pine Bluff, and I've been teaching about Arkansas wildlife and outdoor skills and those kind of things for many years.

And I'm now an assistant chief in education, working with many of the nature centers and some of our programs and statewide events and things like that.

You talked about nature centers.

You were at the very first one built.

I was there when they built the first one, and that opened up in what year was it?

'01, 2001.

So you'd been there a couple of years and you managed the one.

Let's kind of take me around the state.

I know we have five nature centers where people can go.

It's a good, good idea for something to do this summer when the kids are out of school.

But kind of lead me around the state.

Tell me a little bit about each one of them because they're all different.

They're all different.

So we've got one in Pine Bluff, focuses on the Delta.

You can take the trails out and see some of the bio out there and the cypress trees and along the river and those kind of things, kind of a lowland, swampy area.

See a big alligator at the nature center, not out in the wild.

There may be some out in the wild too, but we've got one you can see for sure.

Right on the Arkansas River.

You're pretty close there.

So everything kind of centers around the delta there.

Sure.

That's got the theme down there.

And I know you have the nature trail, but it's also air conditioned inside as well.

You have the big aquarium down there, you walk through?

Right.

So the nature center itself is about 13,000ft².

Plenty of space inside, lots of interactive exhibits.

There's classrooms for programs that we give.

There's a laboratory.

There is a 22,000 gallon aquarium.

Yeah.

So you can see native fish, gar, catfish, bass, all kinds of things that you find in that area.

You can see some snakes on display at the nature center.

So there's a lot of things to see and do inside, especially this time of year.

Get out there and walk the trails early in the morning or late in the evening.

Come inside.

Exactly.

Right now that's in Pine Bluff.

Go north a little bit.

You got one in Jonesboro.

Got one in Jonesboro.

Focuses on Crowley's Ridge and the wildlife up there.

The habitat in northwest or northeast Arkansas.

They also have some snakes, so they have other animals there on display, wildlife and stuff.

You can see, you can learn about the ridge, how it's different from the surrounding delta area, some unique geography and plants and stuff.

Also, it's not just animals but the habitat.

Learn about the habitat.

Go west from there.

I guess.

You go to Northwest Arkansas.

Go across northwest Arkansas.

The newest nature center is in Springdale.

Really nice facility.

Besides the interactive exhibits, the animals and those kind of things, they also have an outdoor 3D range for archery that you can walk and use anytime.

And they also have a marksmanship center indoors, air conditioning that you can do, archery and BB guns and things like that also.

That's Springdale, come down to Fort Smith.

Fort Smith, Fort Smith is talking about the Arkansas River Valley area, that part of the state, and they have a little lake on the property.

So you can fish right there.

You can kayak and canoe right out.

And they have kayaks and canoes there.

So if you don't have one, you just come check one out.

You can even check out a fishing pole.

Is that right there at Fort Chaffee area?

It's right there, Fort Chaffee.

It's on Wells Lake.

So they have lots of exhibits.

We're getting ready to redo their exhibits.

So it's all going to be brand new.

You know, that's the other good thing about this.

If you visit one of these, they change from time to time.

So just because you've been one once doesn't mean don't go back.

You got one more in Little Rock.

One more in Little Rock, it's downtown.

It's right off Clinton Avenue.

It's not exactly what people think of when they think Nature Center and Wildlife, but it's right there on the river.

There's trails and stuff.

There's a wetland area down there.

You can come inside.

If you've been downtown seeing other stuff and get some air conditioning and learn about, they've got aquariums, to some really nice aquariums.

Yeah, learn about Arkansas and all the different regions and kind of figure out where you want to go from there.

It's kind of a good starting place because it tells you and then you come out and travel these other.

So that might be a good idea this summer to take the kids, the whole family there, free of charge.

Free.

Yeah.

We'll talk more about that.

You can go to AGFC.com and just look up all the information about calendars and stuff like that going on.

Hey, I know you brought some live snakes today for me and you brought one for me and I'm glad you brought some that we don't want to handle.

Let's talk about them first before you get that snake out.

There's how many different snakes that venomous snakes do we have in Arkansas?

Six.

Okay.

Venomous snakes.

Some you may see if you're outdoors very much.

You may see regularly.

Some you may not ever run across.

So people are familiar with copperheads and cottonmouth.

Then we got.

Let's talk about those individuals.

Just because if you're going to be out in the wild, you're going to need to be able to identify some of these things.

Let's let's talk about let's go through the six and then we're going to get the one out.

And maybe I might handle it.

Don't know, another Johnny Carso show for all of those.

You talk about identifying them.

Everybody wants to know how you identify whether it's venomous and not venomous and that stuff.

And there are lots of ways to do that.

But the easiest way is just to learn what they look like.

Sure.

And the reason I say that is you get to looking up how you identify venomous from non-venomous.

Well, things will tell you what they've got vertical pupils instead of round like a cat's eye, or they've got split scales under their tail or they don't.

All these things didn't think, well, do you really want to get so close to look under the tail?

Good point.

Or get close enough that you can see eye to eye.

And the thing is, there's always exceptions to the rule.

Always.

Hey, let's talk about the Copperhead.

Probably the most common.

You brought one of those in here today.

We are not going to get the copperhead out, by the way, but great, beautiful specimen.

Where are they found?

So for the most part, they're all over the state.

They kind of have different habitats that they like.

They they really blend in well with dried leaves on the ground.

So not so much swampy areas, but forested areas.

The pattern kind of matches.

Yeah.

Old leaves on the ground there.

They're brown that color.

We talk about them having an hourglass shape on the top of them.

Now you have to be right above looking straight down, and you'll see that hourglass pattern on there.

But they blend in really well and copperheads are pretty calm.

They're not as aggressive as some snakes, like people think about, because I hear stories all the time about people walking on trails, and the first 2 or 3 people stepped over the snake and never, never do anything until that fourth or fifth person stepped on it.

And then.

It was.

But the next one we're talking about is a little bit more aggressive the cottonmouth.

Cottonmouth.

Yeah, yeah.

You hear lots of good stories about Cottonmouth.

They found pretty much statewide or.

Pretty much statewide.

But they like water.

They like to be around water.

So you're not going to find them up on top of Pinnacle Mountain or something like that, unless they're lost.

There's other snakes you'll find up there we'll talk about in a minute.

But for the most part, they're a short bodied, kind of thick snake where not as long and skinny as some.

They do have a white stripe on their lip.

Again, you may not want to get close enough to see.

That's something you can see.

Is this the one, when you start getting close, it opens its mouth and I guess you see the white background, but it looks like a cotton ball.

Yeah.

So they'll coil up and right in the center of that coil, they'll put their head in when they're trying to warn you.

They open that mouth up and show you that big white patch.

In the middle of that.

It worked on me.

It works on most of us.

It warned me I got away.

But are they aggressive?

Now will they come after you have heard that?

They are more likely to stand their ground.

Okay.

Some of the snakes will get away from you.

Also they don't mind coming towards you.

They're not necessarily coming after you.

I mean, you think about even a big snake.

What are they going to do with you?

Yeah.

It's hard to convince people, but if you stand real still, a lot of times they'll just go through your legs.

It's hard to look at them when you're running.

It is.

It's hard to see them back in your head.

Hey, I got the next one.

The western diamondback rattlesnake.

So the diamondback rattlesnake is very active.

Can be more aggressive in some people's opinions.

It's only found in the western, west central part of the state.

Really?

It's not found all over.

It's more that part of the state into Oklahoma and farther west.

The good thing about rattlesnakes is they don't want you to be around them either.

That's what they're rattles for.

That's why they rattle.

That's a warning.

That's a warning.

Like here I am.

And it works.

Yeah.

Please stay away.

The hard part is when you hear the rattle, they're hard to find sometimes because once again, they blend in.

That's how they make their living.

Yeah, really?

Here's another rattlesnake that I think I've seen at deer camp in south Arkansas, the timber rattler.

Very common.

That's the rattlesnake most people are going to run across if they see rattlesnakes.

They do have a pattern to them.

They also have a little bit of a red, rusty red color running down their back.

The chain brake rattlesnake does the timber rattler.

Again, you should hear them probably before you see them.

Stop.

Figure out where the sound is.

And you shouldn't have trouble seeing them.

They get up to five feet long.

I mean, these things are getting huge.

They get pretty good size.

I start to say what do they eat, but pretty much anything they want to.

Anything the right size, it'll fit down their mouth.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Hey, the last rattler.

We got two more rattles.

We got another rattlesnake.

That little pygmy rattler.

I've had some experience with this.

I thought it was a baby snake.

And it's just a little pygmy rattles.

They're powerful.

They are.

They don't get very big.

I do hear a lot of people finding pygmy rattlesnakes in their flower beds and that kind of stuff.

Again, they're camouflage.

They're trying to sit still.

They don't want you around.

You're working in your flowerbed, your garden and stuff.

They just hang out there hoping you'll just go away.

But people do come across them.

And there are only like 15 to 20in long.

Right.

Full grown.

And I guess the last venomous snake here in Arkansas not as common, but in some parts of Arkansas you need to know about it.

It's called the Texas coral snake.

Why don't we call it Texas being Arkansas?

Well.

I guess somebody in Texas found it first or named it first.

But yeah, the coral snake is just found in south central Arkansas.

It's got a pretty specific habitat that it stays in.

It doesn't get out very much.

You can go look for one for the rest of your life.

You might not find one.

But they're beautiful.

I mean, they got the red and yellow, kill a fellow, or something like that.

I've heard that before.

They're real pretty, but they're not very big.

They do have a different kind of toxin.

Venom.

Doesn't matter.

Than the others, and they have a real small mouth.

So unless you're messing around doing stuff you shouldn't be, shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's the unfriendly snakes here in Arkansas.

While you get that snake out that you brought, he brought one that's real common here.

But I'm not a snake person.

Go ahead and get him out, because I might, I'm going to hold him.

Just to tell you, I'm not a snake person, but I've got some experience at holding the snake.

We're going to show you this picture right here from a long time ago, right here in this studio, when I did talking outdoors at the Corner Cafe.

That was a boa, a big boa, I know that.

I think he I think he weighed 85, 90 pounds and all.

I remember when they put that snake on me, he started wrapping around my legs and it scared me to death.

Now this is a snake, but this is not quite of a big snake.

Tell me about this one.

What is this?

So this is a speckled kingsnake.

It's one of the more common snakes we have.

You'll hear people talk about good snakes and bad snakes.

They're all good in their own way.

But this is one we consider a good snake because it also eats other snakes, including venomous snakes.

So it could try and eat this copperhead if we put them together.

Copperhead could even bite it and inject venom, but the venom doesn't have any effect on it.

Oh, really?

And this snake does not have fangs like the the venomous snakes do.

So it's a constrictor.

Kind of like that bubble constrictor you held, a smaller version.

Yeah.

So when it catches prey, it catches it with its mouth, but it doesn't have a real strong bite.

And then it wraps itself around it and it squeezes it until the prey dies, and then it swallows it whole.

Wow.

And then digest for a week.

Yeah.

These these things, now, these don't get very big, do they?

Let me see.

How come you're shaking and I'm not?

Okay.

Easy, buddy.

Okay.

He's doing okay.

He's doing fine.

You fed him before you got here, didn't you?

I'm sure he ate in the last week or so.

Oh no.

But you see that tongue sticking out.

I do.

What's he doing?

So he is smelling the surroundings, trying to figure out what's going on.

You probably have a new smell.

So he's checking you out.

When you and I smell stuff like it's dinnertime and we smell stuff, we breathe in through our nose and little particulates in the air fly through our nose and into receptors.

And.

And then we know when we smell something that smells like flowers and I go, oh, that smells like a skunk.

Yeah, yeah.

So what they do, what the snakes are doing is they've got that fork tongue, they stick it out, wave it up and down in the air, catch the little particulates in the air on the tips of their tongue, and then they put their tongue back in their mouth and then the roof of their mouth.

They have two little holes.

And they stick that tongue up in those two little holes.

Called it Jacobson's organ.

And that's how they smell.

They deposit them up in their nose.

Hey, buddy.

So if you want to smell things like a snake smell stuff, you stick your tongue out and wave it around and you stick it up your nose.

No.

Yeah.

How big do these things get?

This is a pretty big one?

That's an average.

That's an average size.

And this is usually the one that you see your kids coming across the yard with and you're dying of fright.

But they're not going to hurt you.

Now they do bite.

You got to keep in mind all snakes bite.

That's how they eat.

Yes, but they just won't kill you.

Anything with a mouth can bite.

So while you're holding it.

So if you were to get bit by this snake.

You didn't plan on that, did you?

I didn't plan on it.

A lot of things happen when we don't plan on, but, so you understand what it's like.

Okay.

They don't have big teeth.

So this is a piece of sandpaper okay, okay.

This is like 40 grit sandpaper.

So if that snake were to bite you.

It would reach over and do that.

Okay.

Is that hurt?

No.

Okay, I felt it.

You felt it.

But it didn't hurt.

Kind of rough.

So here's what most people do.

If they snake reaches out and bites them, what do they do?

Yeah.

You're going to pull away.

They're going jerk away from it, and then it's going to scratch them.

And then you have to worry about bacteria and that kind of stuff.

But I've been bitten by a kingsnake.

Doesn't hurt.

Have you really?

Well, here, you take him back because I don't want to press my luck for sure.

Some other common snakes, non-venomous that we might run across here before we run out of time.

What are some of the most, I know when I was growing up, I used to see a lot of chicken snakes, they call them?

So chicken snakes.

Black rat snakes.

Is that the same thing?

Same thing.

Just depends on who grew up with.

They are the same way.

They're not venomous.

They're pretty harmless.

They get pretty good size.

You know, they can get 4 or 5ft long.

Yeah.

They do.

Did they eat chicken eggs?

They really eat rats.

Okay.

So just all these things eat rodents.

I mean, that's that's hey.

That person.

That's right.

Tell them what why snakes are here.

Well, people always want to know what good is a snake?

Good.

Good question.

So is it really good for you?

Maybe.

Maybe not directly.

But first off, they do eat a lot of rodents, and rodents carry diseases.

You don't want a bunch of mice and rats around your house.

Now, you may not want a snake, but you surely don't want mice and rats around your house, so they help control that population.

They are also food for other animals.

So hawks and owls will eat some.

The food chain.

Yep, a fox might eat them.

Alligators will eat snakes swimming across.

Sure, those kind of things.

But also venomous snakes.

They are doing lots of studies on the venom, and they're finding compounds in there that they use for heart patients, anticoagulants.

There you go.

They are doing studies for cancer with snake venom.

So there are benefits to have snakes.

It can help you, maybe with your heart and can also give you a heart attack.

Okay.

Yeah.

And the other end of that I mean, they eat a lot of rodents, farme love them here in Arkansas, especially if they do a lot of good.

Yeah.

Like you said, other poisonous snakes and whatever.

And you know, when they're eating rodents, they're also eating ticks.

Well, thank the Lord.

So another benefit.

Yeah.

Snakes, see there, snakes are purposeful here.

Hey, before we run out of time, how can folks find out more information about snakes other that you can always visit one of the nature centers, just, does all the nature centers all of them have snakes there, pretty much?

All of them have some snakes.

Some don't have venomous snakes and some have bigger collections than others.

But yes, you can go there so you can see them up close through the glass.

That's the best way to learn how to identify them.

While you're there, and you have interpreters there as well.

We've got educators, interpreters that can tell you about them.

Answer all your questions while you're there.

You can get an Arkansas Snake guide book so you can carry that around.

Pocket guide.

That's handy.

If your kids are interested in trading cards, you can get snake trading cards.

Trading cards along with some others.

That's on the back of them so you can learn about them.

Herps of Arkansas.

On the website, go to Harps of Arkansas.

They got great photographs and information.

There's also a Herpetological Society of Arkansas.

If you're really into snakes, turtles, herps, amphibians, herps.

That's what herps are.

And also the I was I was contacting the county extension service.

They also help you out there.

Well hey a lot of people want to know how to keep them away from your house, and which is a good question.

Obviously.

But lots of times when they come around your house, they're there for a reason.

Some helpful hints on how to keep snakes away from your house.

So snakes are not territorial.

They didn't just decide to live at your place and stay.

They're there because they might have food, you know?

Think about it.

Would you live where you live if there wasn't any grocery store or a restaurant?

30 miles.

Yeah.

So around your house, they need cover and they need food.

If you've got tall grass, if you've got cover for them, if you've got wood piles and stuff that'll have insects, that'll have mice and rats in there, that's what's attracting them.

Clean up your area so that you don't attract their food and they don't have any cover.

And they'll move on.

So mow your yard.

You keep it down because they won't cover as well.

And then, of course, you got to think like a snake pretty much.

They're after something that is attractant.

Like the wood piles are really rough for those because they have insects in them as well.

I was looking too, the rules and regulations.

You know, a lot of people don't believe us when we say that it's actually against the law to kill a snake.

And I can remember growing up and it wasn't right, but we just did it as kids.

We were bored.

We'd go out and just shoot snakes and turtles for target practice, and we shouldn't have done that.

And now there's a law against that as well.

It's against the law to kill a snake.

There are exceptions, obviously.

So the way the laws are written, it's against the law to hunt or kill anything that's out of season.

Okay.

If there's not a season on it.

It's not an, open season then you can't kill it.

There's not a snake season any time of the year.

So it's always against the law to kill wildlife that's out of season.

So but obviously use common sense if you're in danger.

If you are in danger, there's some situations like that.

Yeah.

They make exceptions and stuff.

Where do these snakes go during the winter time?

So they hibernate somewhere either under a log they find a hole in the ground.

You know, once you get under the ground in Arkansas, about 12 18in, the temperature holds about 50 to 55 degrees.

So they they crawl down there, go into a form of hibernation, and they don't eat.

They're they're cold blooded.

We say cold blooded.

Their blood is not really cold.

Yeah.

Their body temperature is controlled by the air temperature.

So in here.

That's why you see them sunning out on rocks.

They like to get out in the spring.

They get too hot.

They get in the water and cool off.

Just like us.

So when their body temperature gets down below a certain temperature, they can't digest food.

Oh, so they don't need to eat.

Their metabolism slows down quite a bit.

They don't eat as much food as you and I. Anyway, they're only eating once a week or so and.

Weather doesn't affect me anyway.

Yeah, so.

So they just go underground somewhere.

Hey, Eric, you brought one of these sheds here.

I guess you call them a, what do you call them?

A shed.

A shed?

It's snakeskin.

This is a timber rattlers shed.

This is.

Yes.

And I've seen those around.

And that means the snakes been there.

Do they do that every year?

Why did they do that?

So they do that as they grow.

They might shed once in a year.

They might shed 3 or 4 times, depending on their age, how much they're eating, how much their body is growing.

So there's skin stretches a little bit, but not enough as they grow, starts to get old.

So the first thing they do is it starts to dry out.

It covers over their eyes, and their eyes get all kind of clouded over, and they'll rub their nose on something and it splits, and it's almost like peeling your sock off inside out.

Wow.

And when you find a snake skin and people find them all the time and they show them to be like, oh my gosh, I've got a snake.

It's four foot long, you know, because my skin's four foot, well as they pull it off.

They're stretching it out, stretching it out.

So the snakeskin you find is always longer.

Do all snakes do that?

All snakes shed.

And now some snakes have babies and others lay eggs as well.

There's so much to know about these things.

So some have live birth, some have some lay eggs.

There are a few snakes in the world that actually have eggs and they hold them inside.

Okay.

And then they give birth and it looks like live birth, but they're actually having eggs.

And how many times a year do they mate, some of them, do they mate every year or in what time of year?

Is there a mating season?

Once, yes.

In the springtime.

Okay.

So depending on where you live and the temperature, temperatures change and stuff.

But yeah, they make once a year depending on the species that clutch of babies maybe 4 or 5 and it might be 15 or more.

So yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Real interesting information.

I appreciate you bringing, I especially appreciate you bringing this.

And the venomous snake over there, the copper.

They're just beautiful.

And folks, if you want to learn more about this, like we said, visit one of these nature centers, five of them around the state.

They've got Pine Bluff, Jonesboro, Springdale I'm getting there, Fort Smith, Little Rock and Little Rock.

And again, Eric Maynard, thank you so much for coming in.

I appreciate it, and I hope you have a good day and we'll see you next week right here on Naturally Wild.

This program was made possible by Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry, East Harding Construction Company, David's Burgers, Greenway Equipment, Arkansas Farm Bureau, and the Electric Cooperative of Arkansas.

(upbeat guitar music)