Baby rattlers loose in downtown Livingston - 'nuff said

Thursday May 9, 2013
Like Snakes on a Plane, only better. This is one of those “only in Montana” moments!
Baby rattlers loose in downtown Livingston
Published: Wed, 05/08/2013 - 2:02pm | By Rose Brown - Enterprise Staff Writer
One baby rattlesnake has been captured, but there could be 10 or more on the loose in downtown Livingston after
about a dozen others escaped from a cage in the back of a pickup Tuesday afternoon.
The pickup was parked in the alley behind the Whiskey Creek Saloon at 110 N. Main St. around 4 p.m. Tuesday
afternoon when some of the bar’s customers noticed that a couple of snakes had escaped from their cage and were
loose in the back of the truck, said Whiskey Creek bartender Lori Munroe Wednesday morning.
Then one customer spotted a snake that had escaped the truck and a group set out to capture it. Grabbing whatever
tools they could find in their vehicles, they hunted down the rattler and one man pinned the snake’s head down
with a fishing pole. He then picked it up with his hand and put it in a cooler. Later they transferred it to a different
plastic container. The snake was about a foot long, Munroe said.
“It was kind of a show-and-tell day here,” she said about the atmosphere at the bar.
The owner of the truck, who has not been identified, left the scene, but returned an hour later to say that he was
missing a total of 12 snakes, including the one captured, Munroe said.
It’s not clear if the snakes escaped in the downtown area or in other locations, she said, but she and customers
searched the area without finding any of the missing rattlers.
Only the smallest snakes were able to escape because the gauge of the mesh in the cage was wide enough for
them to squeeze through, Munroe said.
The actual explanation for the snakes’ escape is still unknown.
The mesh size of some snake cages will hold adult snakes but not babies, according to local rattlesnake consultant
and enthusiast Michelle Becker.
Becker, who has been capturing and handling rattlesnakes for 23 years, warns the public that baby rattlesnakes
can actually be more dangerous than adult rattlesnakes.
Immature rattlers don’t have the ability to regulate their venom and are inclined to strike and release all of their
venom in one strike, which can be extremely poisonous, Becker said.
Also, they can’t be heard, because their rattles are not developed yet, she said.