Western Kentucky Snakes!

WKMS | By Todd Hatton

Published July 29, 2012 at 9:53 AM CDT

Earlier this month, we reported on the increase in the incidents of snakebite in Kentucky. State wildlife officials lay some of the blame for the rise on the drought; when it gets hot and dry, it only makes sense that people, and snakes, would head for the water. And when they come into contact, it can be unfortunate. But this doesn't mean all, or even most, snakes are dangerous. But how do you tell the difference between snakes that are from the ones that aren't? What do you do if a venomous snake bites you? And what do we really know about these reptilian fellow residents of our region. For some answers, Todd Hatton traveled to Murray State University's Hancock Biological Station on Kentucky Lake to speak with Chris Howey, a fourth-year doctoral student in herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles) at Ohio University.

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Todd Hatton

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.

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