Practical Advice for Coping with Copperheads in Atlanta

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A neonatal Copperhead, as is depicted by the 'yellow' tail.
This will disappear as the animals gets older.

I stumbled upon this article this morning, while doing research for my Biology of the Reptiles course at Agnes Scott College. I was, of course, put off by the title 'Good Snakes vs Bad Snakes' but could quickly guess what this author was referring to by 'Bad Snakes' - She was undoubtedly speaking of Atlanta's most despised vertebrate — the Copperhead.

At the Amphibian Foundation, we have initiated a Copperhead Rescue and Advocacy Program for two reasons: 1) We feel an obligation, which started with amphibians, to speak out for the underdog, persecuted, and the misunderstood wildlife in our neighborhoods (Box Turtles and Snapping Turtles also fall into one or more of these categories) — and 2) We were 'forced' into this position by the immediate inundation of Copperhead calls and messages we started receiving once we opened our doors in Buckhead in 2016.

Part of our Copperhead program involves providing free workshops for the community, so that people can understand the truths about these snakes vs the unprecedented numbers of falsehoods. Plus, we just want people to know how to recognize a Copperhead. Only 6% of the Copperhead calls we receive are actually Copperheads. The vast majority of our calls are harmless, beneficial snakes, and many of which are killed nonetheless.

This article from Slate highlights some things you can do if you are concerned about Copperheads, and don't want to waste your time and money.  It has some great advice from our friends and partners David Steen and Kathryn Dudeck.

Read the article here

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