Snake expert shares tips with first responders

CHESAPEAKE

Hisssssssss.

OK, so it's a snake. But what kind? Is it poisonous? Is it sleeping or poised to strike? One thing's for sure - you don't want to get close enough to find out, right?

Besides, it's a snake. Yuck!

Jimmi Bonavita says that's the attitude of most people. It's a frame of mind that really sticks in his craw.

"They are good animals, and they do so much good," he said. "And they are one of the most misunderstood animals."

Bonavita, a 56-year-old former police officer, started collecting the reptiles when he was a child in Franklin. Now he's a certified herpetologist.

He earns his living advising area military installations on environmental issues and volunteers his time to educate people about snakes.

His target audience: servicemen and -women and area firefighters and law enforcement officers, especially those who might be first-responders in a snakebite emergency.

During a presentation at the Navy's auxiliary landing field at Fentress, Bonavita introduced a group to some live samples of southeastern Virginia's three species of poisonous snakes - the copperhead, the water moccasin (cottonmouth) and the canebrake rattlesnake.

"It's good to know what you're dealing with," said Pierre Toussaint, a Navy firefighter at Fentress who said he sees snakes often in the base's rural setting.

"It's good to know what type are out here and what they look like" and " how they act."

First out of Bonavita's bag - actually an old pillowcase - was a female northern copperhead.

Smallish, with a pinkish-orange color and hourglass shapes on its back, the snake immediately set up in a striking position and stared down Bonavita.

Its eyes - the pupils of most poisonous snakes have vertical apertures, like a cat's eyes, whereas those of nonpoisonous species are round - were dark and didn't waver. Its tongue flicked out, then up and down. Its tail wiggled.

Bonavita poked at the creature with the handle end of his snake stick, provoking a strike.

Several in the class - many of them strapping young firefighters - jumped back, startled.

Nobody got close enough to touch any of the snakes, and Bonavita wasn't about to let them.

The copperhead's bite left venom on the handle, which Bonavita described as "kind of like orange juice. But you don't want to drink this for breakfast."

Bonavita said each of the three species he showed off is docile. To prove his point, he picked up the copperhead that had just bitten his handling stick and laid the snake at his feet.

More fire fighters in the class of about 50 moved from the front row toward the back as the snake eased its way onto the instructor's shoes and around his legs. Some in the group gasped.

"They're not the human-attacking creatures so many people think they are," Bonavita said as the snake slowly slithered around his feet. "Unless they are provoked.

"Leave it alone and it won't bother you."

He added that 75 percent of all bites are "illegitimate," meaning that the animal was provoked.

"The rest of the time, it's because of something like sitting in the woods, or putting your hand on something, or stepping on one... when you don't see it," he said. "Most real bites are accidental.

"The other ones are people asking for trouble."

Local poisonous snakes are not deadly. But, Bonavita said, "you might wish you were dead after the bite: very painful for a long time."

That's because Virginia's three poisonous species carry hemotoxin, a poison that destroys tissue, eating at muscle and rotting the skin.

"There are people who still can't use their hands or feet very well years after being bitten, " he said.

Snakes often will "dry bite," meaning that no venom comes out of their fangs. Bonavita tried to get his second visual aid, a small water moccasin, to prove his point, giving it a nudge as he had with the copperhead.

Again, the result was a lightning-quick strike - this time two in succession.

The back of the room was getting crowded.

"They're just defending themselves," he said, again showing the group some venom on his snake stick.

"Snakes generally avoid people at all costs."

Bonavita's third show-and-tell participant was the canebrake rattler, which, before it even got out of the bag, was advertising how it got its name.

"All snakes, when scared, will shake their tail," he explained. "But rattlers want to let you know they're there."

Most bites from poisonous snakes in southeastern Virginia are from copperheads and occur in the fall, Bonavita said, when the snake's markings and colors blend in with fallen leaves and twigs.

Bonavita stressed that many of the area's nonpoisonous species have coloration and habits that make them look like their more dangerous brethren.

"It's a defense mechanism," he said. "They look like the poisonous ones on purpose."

The best at it locally is the brown watersnake.

"People kill lots of them thinking they are a moccasin," he said. "It's a real shame.

"And it's born out of ignorance."

That's something Bonavita is trying to change - one class of wide-eyed participants at a time.

Lee Tolliver, (757) 222-5844, lee.tolliver@pilotonline.com