What happens when I go out to the field.

So as many of you know, I went out a few weekends ago to do field work (ie. collect data from shrubs people have been watching for nearly 30 years). We have a site that is just north of Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert. I went out with my boss and one of his first students, the current provost of UMass. These guys are quickly closing in on 60 (well, one is already there) and apparently suffer from a bit of hearing loss. We come back to our camp at the end of a day and I hear a rattling noise.

Of course, I leap back making funny "I'm scared out of my mind" noises causing the guys laugh at me (rather loudly I must say). Until I point out that the cause of my behavior is a mojave green rattlesnake that has decided that our tanks of nitrogen gas might be interesting prey (they track heat and giant metal tanks get very hot in the desert sun). Even after I pointed the thing out, they still couldn't hear it.

Now, I've worked in places where these snakes are before. I even came with in a few inches of stepping on one once. However, they have all been very relaxed snakes. This one was on caffeine and speed, in full strike position and rattling its butt off.

Snakes in general are not so scary. This one is though. Its venom includes the usual run of the mill stuff that other rattlesnakes have as well as a neurotoxin which apparently can cause you to stop breathing within 15 minutes of being bit (don't quote me here, this is all stuff I've been told by other non-herp scientists).

Given that they've led long lives, the guys offered to deal with it. So using one of my tent poles they began to try and move it.Of course, it immediately went under a bush which made grabbing it that much more exciting.
Eventually though, they managed to get it into a paper bag to carry it away... using the tent pole of course.
Here are my heroes carrying the evil villain snake off into the sunset.
And a last shot of Bruce with the snake safely deposited too far away to crawl back overnight and surprise us when we're working at 2 am.
Bruce's wife insisted that I walk ahead of everyone once she heard the story since I was apparently the only one in the group who could hear the thing! So their chivalry and machismo died a quick death. At least no one was bit and we didn't see it again for the rest of the trip.

Oh and did I mention that it was 113 degrees F in the shade? Every day?

I love being a scientist.