By Dave Orrick
St. Paul Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A hiker remained hospitalized Tuesday after receiving a rare rattlesnake bite while he was hiking in southeastern Minnesota, officials said.
The 28-year-old Mounds View man was in fair condition Tuesday at Gundersen Lutheran Health System in La Crosse, Wis., where he was taken by ambulance Friday after being bitten by a timber rattlesnake in Beaver Creek Valley State Park near Caledonia, known habitat for the venomous snake.
The man, who declined to be interviewed, was recovering from what appears to be an extremely rare event: a timber rattlesnake striking out at a human without provocation.
“Nobody knows what provoked the strike,” said Ed Quinn, a wildlife biologist and coordinator of natural resource management for parks and trails with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “It’s just really rare for this to happen.”
The last known time a timber rattler bit a person in Minnesota was 2000; the last time one bit without provocation was 1996. The last known fatality in Minnesota from a rattlesnake was 1868, Quinn said.
According to Quinn and Houston County Sheriff Doug Ely, the hiker was camping in the park with a group of friends. The group, along with a dog, was hiking Friday on a trail in the northern section of the park, which has signs notifying visitors that the snake is present.
The hikers were on the trail when one of them saw the snake strike from some grass just off the trail. It’s unclear whether the dog’s presence might have mattered, but Quinn said the eyewitness account was clear: No one stepped on the snake — or was even aware it was there before it struck.
Only one of the snake’s two fangs caught the hiker’s skin just above his sneaker, but that was enough. He was rushed to the hospital, where antivenin was administered. Without antivenin, a timber rattlesnake’s bite can kill a person.
Details of the man’s reaction, symptoms and any lasting effects from the bite were unavailable. Law enforcement officials in the area said the ankle bite led his leg below the knee to swell up and turn black soon after the attack.
Large but generally shy, timber rattlers — one of two poisonous snakes found in Minnesota — are rarely a threat to people and usually retreat when something large, such as a person, approaches, according to Quinn and several herpetology organizations’ websites.
Still, Quinn acknowledged that news of the snakebite and its severity might give people pause to hike in the timber rattler’s domain, which is generally restricted to the southeastern counties of Houston, Fillmore, Winona and Wabasha.
He recommended hikers stay on paths, watch where they’re stepping and consider wearing boots. “Had he had boots on this might not have penetrated the flesh,” Quinn said, emphasizing that he doesn’t think anyone in the group did anything reckless.
While once common as far north as Washington County, the timber rattler was hunted vigorously, with bounties paid for dead ones as recently as 1989. The animal is currently listed by the state as threatened, and hunting and vandalism of their dens — also once common — aren’t allowed.
The region’s only other poisonous snake — the endangered Massasauga rattlesnake — is smaller and is rarely encountered.
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