Snake bites 50 times as expert tries to make video on trail. ‘He’s actually very nice’
A Pennsylvania man wanted to tell people all about a cool snake he found along a trail, but it just wouldn’t stop biting him, video shows.
Despite the interruptions, and a little bit of blood, Jesse Rothacker’s enthusiasm doesn’t diminish as the snake in his hands bites him again and again — over 50 times in total — during a video he posted June 12 on YouTube.
“Some people see that tail rattle and they think venomous. But ... snakes rattle their tail all the time,” he says, recording the chance encounter. “Most snakes, venomous or not, use that tail as a warning sign.”
Moments later, the snake gives him a more stern warning by sinking its fangs into his ankle, video shows. It’s the first bite of many.
Luckily, Rothacker knows a lot about snakes through his work with Pennsylvania-based Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary.
“Except for being bitey, he’s actually very nice,” he says.
The snake he’s seen handling in the video has a distinctive pattern and coppery coloration that people often mistake for a venomous copperhead, he says. But this is an eastern milk snake.
It’s nonvenomous, generally eats rodents and other snakes, and is mostly harmless to people, Rothacker said.
Though it does seem to have a taste for Rothacker.
“Some other snakes just give you a little defensive bite, then they let go. The milk snake, it almost looks like they are tasting you,” Rothacker says. “He’s going to eat all of me.”
But try as it might, even an adult milk snake can’t come close to wrapping its jaws around a fully grown snake expert.
It tries from every angle, biting his shirt and pants, his arms and legs, even latching on to his nose and eyebrows — managing to break the skin a few times, video shows.
“This has to be one of the bitiest milk snakes I have ever seen,” he says.
In the midst of a “biting spree,” the snake also nips itself and the camera, video shows.
Rothacker has been bitten “thousands” of times by nonvenomous snakes over his career, but he’s never run across a snake quite as bite-happy as this, he says.
“This is the record for most bites from one snake,” he says.
After enduring the snake’s relentless defense, Rothacker gingerly releases the snake onto a fallen log and it slithers away victorious.
“I was hoping to make it more educational, but because this one is actually so active and so bitey I kind of forgot what I was saying,” he says.
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