REPTILE REVIEW

Presentation offers information about local snakes

Mike Stotts/VIEWFrom left, Mason Groves, 14, Alan Kazlaskia, 16, and Shane Joseph, 15, retrieve snakes from their temporary pillow case homes to show attendees during a lecture at the Boulder City Library. Mike Stotts/VIEWKaylee Domzalski, 11, looks at a baby Mojave rattlesnake on display during a National Park Service lecture. Advertisement

Don't look now, but is that a speckled rattlesnake or a red coachwhip under the bushes in your front yard?

Knowing the difference could save your life.

That was one of the messages stressed by National Park Service volunteer Bob McKeever, who played to a packed house on March 13 in the Boulder City Library meeting room.

It was standing and sitting room only, as adults and kids came to see the collection of three rattlesnakes, six nonvenomous snakes, three lizards and a chuckwalla.

The former park ranger also had some help from 15-year-old Shane Joseph, 16-year-old Allen Kazlaskia and his 14-year-old grandson Mason Groves, who held, caressed and wrapped around their necks the nonvenomous snakes so everyone could touch one.

"I'm going to offer everybody the opportunity to touch a snake," McKeever said, "but they won't actually hold it."

McKeever announced that none of the venomous snakes would be touched, but they would be on display. Another important point he made, to the appreciation of the audience, was that the three locked cages each filled with a hissing snake would stay that way.

The hit of the whole 90-minute presentation for the kids wasn't the colorful pictures or McKeever's facts and stories, but rather the chance, with eyes wide open, to get up close and personal with the reptiles.

"It was scaly and slimy," said 8-year-old Daniel Karr, who made a wrinkled face when asked what it was like to touch the snake. "I expected it to be hard."

Likewise, 7-year-old Lisa Driver was amazed.

"It was slimy," she said. "It was pretty scary."

McKeever, who was 8 when he saw his first snake, a black rat snake, hanging in a tree along a river in Pennsylvania, enjoys sharing his knowledge of snakes and reptiles found in and near Boulder City.

"There are 14 species of snakes found around Boulder City and 11 of them are harmless that don't want to bite, but not always, sometimes they will," he told the audience as some hissing went on under the cloth-draped cages. "The speckled rattlesnake that's about 2- to 3-feet long is the most common around here and is found in the rocky hills. It has quite a virulent venom. It's a very dangerous snake. The last one we saw in Boulder City was in a carport under some stacked tiles."

He then moved on to the sidewinder, another deadly venomous snake found here, that measures between 12 and 18 inches and is easy to identify because of its sideways movement.

"They do crawl into the city," McKeever said, noting that he had seen his first one on "B" Hill. "The closer you live to the edge of town the more likely you are to see one. You may never see one, but the chances are they've been there."

The National Park Service used to offer a series of naturalist programs at the Alan Bible Visitors Center, but lagging participation prompted park officials to move the timely programs to the library which, judging by the snake presentation attendance, appears to be a smash.

"Because the reptiles are emerging about now, we thought it was the right time of the season to offer this program," said Sky McClain, lead field interpreter for the NPS. "We are at the edge of the desert with wild animals out there that might seek the coolness of the yard, so this is the right time for this."

McKeever -- who has spent a lifetime with the NPS, first starting out at Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania, then at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico and finally at Lake Mead National Recreation Area -- also talked about the 12 kinds of lizards found locally. Only one, the Gila monster, is venomous.

"The Gila monster almost never bites people," he said.

When asked if the Boulder City Hospital could handle snakebite wounds, McKeever said, "When I got bit they treated me, so, yes, they can do that."

He also held up his car keys and called them his first aid kit. Transportation is the key to surviving a serious snake bite.

"If you get bit, calm down, don't run, don't walk if someone's around who can carry you and use your cell phone to call for a helicopter," McKeever suggested.

He also had some advice about how to avoid getting bit by a snake for the adults and kids.

"If you've got some old tiles or stacks of wood on the ground, get them off the ground because they make perfect hiding holes," McKeever advised. "You want to always keep your eyes open and follow my feet, fingers and fanny rule. Never put any of them anywhere you haven't checked closely for rattlesnakes."