Being a summer camp counselor at a nature center really has its perks; I gotta tell you! In addition to all the fun-filled environmental education lessons and guided trail hikes we do the kids, we also bring out the nature center critters for some hands on critter touching and wrangling (more so touching and not so much wrangling fortunately). The kids love it, I love it and I even suffered my first snake bite by an eastern king snake. Felt just like a cat bite it did! Fortunately, eastern king snakes are nonvenomous. The lovely lady you see above you is, in fact, quite the opposite. This killer queen of a snake is none other than the esteemed (and often feared) timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). She’s quite the elderly snake at our center and although I am unsure as to her actual age, her presence and larger than life personality is all you need to know. Fortunately, our summer campers do not ever get to interact with any of our venomous, poisonous or otherwise lethal wildlife; leave that to the on-sight herpetologist. Regardless, this pit viper makes for some very photogenic shots through her enclosure. On a good day you might even catch her doing a little rattle dance. Just don’t let her catch you of course.