Life and Wildlife along the Little Buffalo River

A man who died after being bitten by a copperhead snake over the past weekend is only the second Missourian to die from such a bite, according to a Missouri Department of Conservation snake expert.

KFVS-TV reports (http://bit.ly/NZGQ4s ) the incident happened along the Current River. The man was being transported Saturday by the East Carter ambulance service when he started having trouble breathing.

The ambulance crew stabilized the man at a clinic in Ellsinore, but he later died at a hospital.

The man’s name had not been released as of early today.

MDC herpetologist Jeff Briggler acknowledged the department’s Web site with details about poisonous snakes in Missouri incorrectly states “there is no record of a human death caused by a copperhead bite in this state.”

“There are only two reported deaths from snakes on record in Missouri that we could find,” Briggler said this morning. “One was in 1933 from a timber rattlesnake bite, and there is a death certificate from 1965 on record for a man in the Kansas City area who died from a copperhead bite.”

Briggler noted that until the mid 1960s, all Missouri deaths related to venomous contact — including insect stings and snake bites – were lumped together in official records so it’s difficult to identify the exact cause.

The venomous snakes found in Missouri include: the Osage and southern copperhead, cottonmouth, western pygmy rattlesnake, massasauga rattlesnake and timber rattlesnake. The most common venomous snake in Missouri is the copperhead.

Briggler said anyone who is bitten by a snake they cannot identify should immediately go to a medical center to be evaluated.

“The impact of a bite is going to vary tremendously,” Briggler said. “Some people are very allergic to snake venom. They will swell up and it can constrict their breathing. There will be pain at the site of the bite as the venom breaks down tissue. It really depends on how much venom was injected and what kind of snake bit you.”

He said venomous snakes don’t always inject venom.

“About 25 percent of the time they inject no venom. It’s just a warning bite that says leave me alone,” he said. “Copperhead venom actually is relatively mild, compared to that of a cottonmouth or timber rattlesnake.”