Condition of bite victim is still unknown

Despite their fearsome reputation, timber rattlesnakes rarely sink their fangs into people, and especially not more than twice, as appears to have been the case with a man bitten while hiking just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, experts said Wednesday.

Park officials have declined to identify the 48-year-old victim or to provide further details, such as the type of snake, but a witness told an emergency responder that the man was bitten five times Tuesday by a timber rattler while walking the Appalachian Trail.

J.D. Kleopfer, a Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries wildlife biologist in charge of reptiles and amphibians, said timber rattlers are unlikely to bite more than twice unless a person attempts to catch them.

The man was flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center after the incident, which occurred near milemarker 9 on the parkway. There was no word on his condition.

Timber rattler venom can be lethal, depending on the severity and number of bites. It also can destroy tissue and cause permanent scars. Roughly 7,000 people are bitten by snakes each year, and an average of about five of those cases prove fatal, according to federal statistics.

Chief George Maupin of the Waynesboro First Aid Crew said he found the victim Tuesday afternoon lying on the ground in a semi-conscious state in the Dripping Rock area.

Another person at the scene told Maupin that the man was walking the trail when he was bitten five times by a timber rattler.

John McKeithen, a Nellysford Realtor, saw the man being loaded onto an ambulance as he passed Dripping Rock on his way to Wintergreen.

McKeithen said the man did not look well and a park ranger told him the man had been bitten by a timber rattler. McKeithen later photographed the man being airlifted to U.Va.

Maupin, who has worked with the Waynesboro First Aid Crew for 30 years, recalls responding only infrequently to snake bites during his tenure.

“This is very unusual. It happens only once every two to three years,’’ he said.

Kleopfer said parkway visitors may encounter male timber rattlers more over the next couple of months because it is mating season.

During that period, male rattlers travel long distances – sometimes as far as a mile – in search of females. The females are less likely to travel this time of the year, Kleopfer said.

Timber rattlers are known to be reclusive and difficult to spot with their camouflage skin, marked by dark bands along the back, according to the Center for Reptile and Amphibian Conservation Management, based in Fort Wayne, Ind. The snakes grow up to 5 feet long and feed mostly on rodents, including mice, squirrels and chipmunks, according to the reptile center.

Attempts to reach Kurt Speers, the district ranger for the Blue Ridge Parkway, who is handling the incident, were unsuccessful.