Liberty police officer Pete DeAngelo squats down to observe eight rattlesnakes basking on a rock in central Pennsylvania. DeAngelo and Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office deputy Mike Taylor look for timber rattlesnakes in Pennsylvania. However, they don’t hunt them. They get information on them and photograph them for state biologists.

For the third year, two Mahoning Valley police officers made their way to central Pennsylvania to spend time looking for timber rattlesnakes.

Liberty police officer Pete DeAngelo and Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office deputy Mike Taylor have encountered the venomous snakes on numerous occasions, all while hoping to spread education and increase conservation efforts for the threatened population.

Taylor said his meeting with DeAngelo was purely coincidental.

“We had never met each other,” he said. “Confidentially, another Liberty police officer was at the sheriff’s office and said some crazy guy bought a venomous snake permit for Pennsylvania.”

Taylor said he got DeAngelo’s phone number and the two have gone searching for snakes ever since.

TALE OF TWO KIDS

Growing up, the two were very different. DeAngelo said he was fascinated by snakes his entire life, but he would never touch one. Eventually, he worked up the courage to look for the venomous snakes and handle them just once.

“I wouldn’t even pick up a garter snake but I’m so fascinated by venomous snakes and after watching thousands of snake catching shows, I had to do it one time,” DeAngelo said. “After doing it that one time, I’m literally hooked.”

On the contrary, Taylor said he grew up playing in the woods looking for all kinds of reptiles.

“I was always in a creek or a stream or in the woods looking for small creatures. I’ve always been fascinated by nature,” Taylor said. “I can remember when I was in grade school picking up snakes and getting bitten by a garter snake. I was never really afraid of them, but I have a respect for the venomous ones.”

For DeAngelo, he had to be taught how to handle the snakes.

“I paid a husband and wife $200 to teach me how to do it,” he said, laughing.

DeAngelo and Taylor separately decided they wanted to handle the reptiles and by their chance meeting, have had the opportunity to learn together.

SEASONAL ‘HUNTING’

DeAngelo said the main reason the two hunt for the creatures is to find them and take pictures. He said the two chart some information, such as the length of the timber rattlesnake, how many they see, where the snakes were and which species was encountered. DeAngelo said the information is turned over to state biologists who help the snakes.

There is a season, DeAngelo said, when it is legal to hunt the snakes. From the second Saturday in June to Aug. 31, a specific license is needed along with a Pennsylvania fishing license in order to hunt the snakes. This time frame is the snakes’ mating season.

DeAngelo added that they have no desire to kill or keep the snakes.

“There are people who keep, catch or kill the snakes. Some people will take the snake to a taxidermist and get it stuffed or they will skin it and put it on a wooden plaque. We have no desire to keep or kill any snake. These snakes are threatened and highly beneficial to the ecosystem,” DeAngelo said.

Taylor said seeing the snakes in nature and their learning of the species has been rewarding.

“When you learn about them, you learn about the fragility of them,” he said. “We’ve learned a lot about them and we have so much respect for them. They’re very fragile and their environment has to be perfect. The best part is they aren’t mean or aggressive.”

Unlike popular belief, according to the two men, snakes aren’t “evil creatures.” Their hope is that through their education on the reptiles, they will give a new attitude toward snakes that will help people understand the animals better.

“There’s too many people that have the idea that the only good snake is a dead snake. There aren’t stories of a snake just coming up to someone and biting it. They will bite if they are provoked,” Taylor said.

DeAngelo added that it wasn’t until this year that a snake “attacked” them while in the woods.

“We have not had any close calls personally. We never had any strike at us, but we have had them strike at our cameras,” DeAngelo said.

WHERE TO LOOK

Just as hunters have “secret spots” in which they consider to be theirs, snake hunters also keep their “hunting” locations secret to keep unwanted people away.

“You don’t want anyone to know, especially someone who doesn’t like them or wants to kill them. It takes a lot to get the trust from someone to take you to one of their spots,” Taylor said.

“Dens and snakes are protected. They’re like the Holy Grail,” DeAngelo said. “People who know where the snakes are don’t divulge the exact information because they fear there will be others who will kill an entire colony of snakes.”

DeAngelo added that giving out locations is worrisome because people might hunt the snakes for the wrong reasons and the snakes themselves only reproduce once every couple of years, if that.

“The issue is the reproduction of the snakes. They don’t reproduce much, and people are worried about giving out locations because people are evil and uneducated,” DeAngelo said. “There are even poachers who come and poach the snakes and sell them to churches down South.”

DeAngelo and Taylor wouldn’t disclose exactly where they look for the snakes in Pennsylvania. They did say, however, it’s along the mountains of central Pennsylvania in state forests such as Elk State Forest, Sproul State Forest and Moshannon State Forest. The area encompasses five counties, DeAngelo said.

Taylor said he got some of his locations from Google Maps.

“A lot of the areas have panned out and some haven’t,” Taylor said. “You look for a rocky outcrop on a southwest facing hillside.”

Both men said they will continue to hunt the snakes and just recently purchased more equipment to further their efforts.

nhawthorne@tribtoday.com