Rescuing a Rat Snake (My Favorite Animal Rescue to Date)

So this incident is not especially recent, but it is definitely one of my most memorable reptile rescues so I thought I'd share it here on steemit. 

A little while back, I was staying after work hours for a little while to help train some of our newest members of our FrogWatch USA chapter. It was around 7:30 pm when I received a call over the radio; the only information that was relayed to me was that it was a "code blue" (an animal medical call). Typically we receive these calls when guests bring in injured wildlife to be looked at, but seeing as how the facility was closed, I became worried that one of our collections animals was hurt until a eastern rat snake (black rat snake) was brought in by our bird/mammal department.

It was a wild snake, approximately 3 1/2 feet in length, and overall it looked to be very healthy and alert (always a reassuring sign); the only thing out of the norm was a HUGE lump in the middle of the body, making it clear the snake had just eaten something. Our animal care staff knew exactly what that something was: a large wooden egg.

Fake eggs are often used by farmers and fowl keepers to encourage their birds to lay their eggs (or to mark out nesting sites). Our facility had acquired a few of these eggs for our wood ducks in the outdoor aviary exhibit. Rat snakes commonly enter the aviary to feed on the rats that scavenge the bird food (amazingly they seem to ignore the birds themselves), however this particular snake had happened upon the fake eggs. Because the female ducks will brood over the faux eggs, they smelled just enough like a real egg that this poor fellow couldn't resist.

So this snake was trying to digest a wooden egg and that was just not going to happen. Since it was after hours, our vet staff and all other herpetologists had left for the day, leaving me alone to take care of the snake...of course. I could already tell that surgery was likely the only way to save the little guy but I had one last idea to try and resolve the situation. To do so meant I had to do something that I had always warned every person against ever doing: I had to royally piss this snake off on purpose. The idea was that if I could intimidate this snake, it would try to regurgitate its meal and attempt to flee (a common escape practice in the wild). I began poking and gently rough housing (not enough to harm in anyway, but hopefully enough to simulate a predator attack) while making loud noises to try and scare it, while also massaging the ventral scales and trying to work the egg back up towards the mouth. Unfortunately, this wild snake was possibly the most patient animal I had ever worked with, and remained calm as I carried on with this for what seemed like ages. I am still to this day amazed that it never tried to bite me; it's just another example of how snakes don't deserve the fear and hatred. After more than 45 minutes of this harassment, the snake FINALLY coughed up the egg! Because of the potentially life threatening scenario, I was unable to take any photographs of the incident, but once the egg was removed, I was able to snap the photo below on my phone (look at the size of that egg compared to the snake!).

It was a hard won battle for both man and snake! The poor critter was completely exhausted following the ordeal, but otherwise unharmed. He was kept overnight in our clinic to allow him to recuperate before being released the following morning. As soon as he was let go, he raced up into the tree tops, no doubt searching to replenish his energy reserves! To date, this remains as my favorite rescue (and I did it solo)!

Note: I found out not long after the incident that this was far from an isolated accident. Many animal facilities have had to operate on snakes to remove faux eggs...some snakes having eaten an entire nest full of them. Fortunately, this incident had a happy ending, but is a reminder of how we need to be more careful about what items enter our local ecosystem.

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