As a replacement event, the town chose to host an annual Wild Chicken Festival. Highsmith via Library of Congressįitzgerald, Georgia was the first to change. Children observing a rattlesnake pit at the Sweetwater Jaycees. The threat of federal intervention (the tortoise is under review by the federal for listing as threatened, and potential protection, under the Endangered Species Act) also appears to have helped persuade two of Georgia’s last three roundups to change their event planning strategy. While hunting rattlesnakes is still legal, gassing is now outlawed, though many people continue to do it and, occasionally, get caught. In Georgia, the threat to the gopher tortoise, which is the state reptile, allowed Jensen’s department to realize some of its most pressing goals. While the rattlesnakes escape gassing-if not for long-“other species that aren’t active in the winter just stay down there and die.” ![]() Its burrows are known to provide a home for over 350 species, including the Eastern indigo snake, the gopher frog, and the pine snake,” he says. “Eastern diamondbacks predominantly use the burrow of the gopher tortoise. But they’re not the only animal that’s threatened by roundups. In Georgia and Alabama, native rattlesnakes have reportedly declined in population and size since the festival-like hunts began in earnest in the 1950s. The act of gassing has serious consequences for the environment, says John Jensen, senior wildlife biologist for Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources. In Texas, meanwhile, residents prefer pumping gasoline fumes (and, often, straight liquids) into the critter’s burrow, producing the same escape response. ![]() When a snake smells the substance, it slithers out of its abode where hunters could easily harvest it. In Alabama, residents historically gassed eastern diamondback rattlesnakes out of their wintertime hidey-holes by spraying the fuel through a water hose. In many southern communities, humans seek their scaly prey en masse-and often use gasoline to meet their ends. Library of Congressīut rattlesnake roundups are altogether different. This glass negative from 1920 shows one brave woman holding a rattlesnake. In the Sunshine State, the South Florida Water Management District will actually pay you for taking the risk of hunting Burmese pythons, an invasive species, in Everglades National Park. In Pennsylvania, for example, residents can pay a $25 fee in exchange for the right to kill one adult copperhead. Hunting for certain species of snakes is a perfectly legal thing to do in most places-if you pay for the proper license and heed the strict bagging limits. But in the past few decades, a growing body of evidence has shown that round-ups often do more harm than good. Today, springtime round-ups are still held in many states, including Texas, Alabama, and Georgia. Int he south, such a pastime is hardly peculiar: rattlesnake hunting dates dates back to the 1700s, when colonists tracked down and killed the reptiles in the hope of protecting human families from its venomous bite. But the main event, held each year since 1958, is an guided hunt in pursuit of western diamondback rattlesnakes, which can be charmed, judged, killed, and sold. ![]() There’s also a Miss Snake Charmer pageant, a snake eating contest, and awards for the most snakes by weight and the longest snake in the show. Highsmith via Library of Congress SHAREĮach year, Texas’s Sweetwater Jaycees-“the world’s largest rattlesnake roundup”-begins with a rattlesnake parade. A snake handler at the Sweetwater Jaycees.
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