SNAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL WRANGLER TEACHES REPTILE SAFETY.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS

Staff Writer

NEWHALL -- With a rattlesnake curling toward him at the end of a hand-held pole, Hugo Heermann held the deadly creature's tail and explained its behavior to a crowd of onlookers.

The poisonous snake was just trying to get a good whiff of his hand, Heermann told visitors to the New Leash on Life Animal Rescue on Saturday.

"He's not being aggressive at all; he's just trying to see what his surroundings are," said Heermann, a veteran snake handler who has never been bitten by a rattler.

Making his case that they, too, can avoid getting bitten -- even in a place full of rattlesnakes like the Santa Clarita Valley -- Heermann encouraged listeners to avoid panicking around any rattlesnakes they might encounter.

He let a couple of volunteers use the pole to pick up rattlesnakes from the tile floor of the rescue center.

Heermann also talked about the snake rescues he performs, picking up the reptiles from backyards and releasing them back into the wild.

Santa Clarita residents can expect rattlesnakes to be slithering all over the place in the coming months as drought-like conditions force the reptiles to venture farther for water, Heermann said.

Santa Clarita resident Carol Riggins, a dog trainer, said she has already killed five rattlesnakes so far this year.

Riggins said she creeps up on rattlers with a shovel and chops off their heads.

But she'd rather not do that, she said.

"They have just as much right being out here as we do," she said. "We talk about how terrible they are, but they do a service to nature. I don't know how much of a service we do."

In his speech to a few dozen visitors to the nature center Saturday, Heermann explained that snakes usually live out their lives within 50 yards of their birth place.

Female rattlers give birth to 15-35 offspring, so if one rattler is found in a backyard there will usually be more nearby, Heermann said.

A backyard swimming pool can attract a rattler because the snakes seek water, and they are good swimmers.

Heermann cautioned that everyone should be on the lookout for rattlers and keep a safe distance from them. A rattlesnake will never chase after someone, he said.

Heermann used two rattlesnakes in his demonstration. One was a fat, gentle snake that was used to being handled and is fed only dead animals.

The other one, a more recent acquisition for Heermann, rattled violently and coiled up, ready to strike.

"I guess rattlesnakes are like some people," Heermann said. "Some of them are not so nice."

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color in SAC edition only; 2 ran in SAC and AV editions only) A rattlesnake is hooked during a seminar on rattlesnake safety at New Leash on Life Animal Rescue in Canyon Country on Saturday. Dozens of people came to learn about rattlesnake safety tips for their homes, pets and family. The participants also had the opportunity to catch a live rattlesnake and place it in a trash can with a snake hook. Rattlesnake rescuer Hugo Heermann, at left, talks to the crowd about rattlesnakes during the seminar.

(3 -- ran in Valley edition only) Rattlesnake rescuer Hugo Heermann, at left, talks to the crowd about rattlesnakes during the seminar.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News