’Myths endanger
By RICHARD HEIDORN JR.
Collegian Staff Writer
“Thwap! ” Biology professor William
* Dunson holds a mouse by its tail then
slaps it down onto the counter, braking
its spine like a bar of Turkish taffy. He
drop® the still twitching rodent into an
aquarium where a medium-sized snake,
just arrived from India, waits.
Feeding concluded, Dunson leads the
Fv way from the lab to his office where he
, will try to explain why he and a graduate
, student have undertaken an unlikely
task preserving from extinction What
is thought to be one of the most ornery
, creatures in the' United States the
timber rattlesnake.-
Conservation of wild animals has been
an increasingly popular cause, but when
the animal to be saved is a potentially
harmful one, the crusade is bound to be 1
an uphill fight. *
, “Working with rattlesnakes is not like*
working with other animals,” graduate
student John Galligan admits. “People
g. are not neutral about rattlesnakes.”
** Slight understatement, that. , Few
creatures have inspired as much fear
and loathing in American popular
culture as the rattlesnake. According to
Dunson, however, cowboy movies that
have depicted the rattler as a villain
prone to unprovoked attacks on unwary
J!> persons are wrong.
’‘More people are killed by bees every
yfear,” he says. “There hasn’t been a
death from a rattlesnake bite in Penn
sylvania in years. ”-
In fact, says Dunson, humans are
more a threat' to rattlesnakes than the
other way around. The snakes, which
jffonce populated much of the mountain
woodlands of the eastern seaboard, have
been wiped out in most of these areas
and in Pennsylvania and parts of New
York find their last refuge before ex
tinction. .
In Pennsylvania, the Society for the
Study, of Amphibians and Reptiles has
W placed the timber rattlesnake on its list
of endangered species and is recom
mending state protection of the snake.
For their part, Dunson and Galligan
have undertaken what they say is the
first detailed study of the timber rat
tlesnake ever made. The study, they
ft. hope, will overcome the misconceptions
i they see as one of the biggest obstacles
I ivi n g
Researchers interested in both science and arts
to the protection they seek for the
snakes.
Legend has it, for example,' that die
female rattlesnake bears as many as 90
snakes in a litter and that she has two
litters every year.
Dunson says research conducted thus
far indicates the rattlesnake actually
has only six to eight young once every
two years. Of these young, not all will
survive the six to seven years to
maturity. “If you kill the adults, you
exterminate the entire population,”
Dunson says.
Because of the way stories of rat
tlesnake encounters are passed around,
Dunson said, people think there are
more rattlesnakes than there really are.
Hunters familiar with the snakes say
they know of only two-or three dens still
used by the snakes while there used to be
dozens.
. Dunson says he hopes his study will
make people aware of-the extinction
danger rattlesnakes face. That, how
ever, doesn’t make the rattlesnake
any more amiable to most people. The
question people are likely to ask is: why
bother-with the rattlesnake, anyway?.
The timber rattlesnake is of no
scientific value, Dunson and Galligan
agree. The few snakes used in medicine
to produce anti-venom are not the
Pennsylvania variety but the larger sort
found in western states.
' “One of the hardest questions I get
asked is ‘what good are they?’ ” Galli
gan says. “Well, what good is the whoop
ing crane? Animals don’t have to be good
for anything.”
It is understandable that hikers and
campers .should believe that “to kill a
snake was a service,” Galligan says.
“But the idea that something should
exist only if it is useful to us is pretty
immature.”
“You can’t have a wilderness without
the natural complement of animals that
are there,” Dunson agrees.
But the biggest threat to the snakes
has come not from the camper or hiker
who can simply avoid the snake, but
from organized snake hunts that are
popular fund raisers throughout Penn
sylvania, Dunson says.
The money raised from the hunts goes
to causes such as local fire departments
and church organizations, but Dunson
rattlers
‘ says there are better ways to raise that
money.. The largest hunt, for example,
raised $6,500 but most of that was not
from the hunt itself, but from food and
carnival concessions, Dunson says.
“They glorify idiocy,” Dunson says
of the hunters. Many prizes and trophies
-among which the most cherished sign of
accomplishment is the “Sunken Fang
Award”, are given to hunters who have
been bitten.
Two such awards were presented at a
hunt - Galligan attended recently in
Morris, Pa. Most of the few bites
reported every year, Galligan says,
result from inexperienced persons
handling the snakes at the hunts.
’ Snakes caught at the hunt are usuaUy
released, but not always where they
were caught. Moving the snakes may be
as harmful as killing the snakes
outright, Dunson says, because it is not
known whether they are able to find a
new den and re-establish in unfamiliar
surroundings.
Dunson said he has heard stories of
hunters destroying the dens with
gasoline or dynamite, a- custom that
persists despite the outlawing of the
practice.
Dunson expects the influence of what
he calls “the hunter mystique” to oppose
his proposal to ban the killing or sale of
the snakes. A similar proposal, Dunson
says, was rejected by the Pennsylvania
Fishing Commission last year after
pressure by hunting groups.
Because the Commission receives all
its funds from fishing, snake hunting and
other license fees, Dunson says, the
Commission has little interest in saving
the rattlesnake. “They don’t take the
long-range view,” he says. “The
average fisherman doesn’t care about
rattlesnakes.”
Many hunters who have learned of the
extinction problem have given up rat
tlesnake hunting, however. Dunson says
he is confident that he will be able to
convince the Commission to adopt his
proposal.
Eventually, there will be a “balance of
those who want to exploit the resources
and those who want to save them,” he
predicts. “Emotions are the biggest
obstacle.”
The timber rattlesnake (above) faces
extinction, according to Penn State
biologists, if precautions are not taken
now. John Galligan (12th-biology) at
right, demonstrates how the research
ers properly lift the snakes from their
aquarium-like homes.
A weekly look at life in the
University community
Friday, July 23,1976 —5
By LAURA SHEMICK
Collegian Wire Editor
Science labs probably seem dull and
gloomy to most people, but the
University’s Materials Research Lab
across University Drive from the Ice
Pavilion is far from uninteresting. In
addition to its many applied science
projects, the lab fosters interest in the
humanities by exhibiting sculpture,
photography and paintings and by
sponsoring events such as “Two-Culture
Dialogues,’’ informal discussions be
tween scientists and artistically-inclined
people.
The lab, while encouraging art and
science to meet, spends a lot of time on
research, too. It works on projects
ranging from the development' of high
density, long-lasting concrete to the
development of artifical blood vessels.
The lab is partially funded by state
and federal agencies and must specify
certain “thrust” areas (projects of s
special interest) in order to qualify for s
the funding. The lab’s current special
interests include luminescent lighting,
ferro-electric materials, highway
materials such as concrete, biomedical
materials and radioactive, waste
disposal.
The lab has a staff of more than 40
professors and other teachers from the
On the left is “Gemini,” by Barbara Hopworth, a glass sculp- in past years. Above is “The Dawn,” by Feliciano Bejar, also
ture featured in the Materials Research Lab’s art room. It is featured in the exhibit. It consists of four glass disks with
a replica of a prize given to an outstanding material scientist many minor lenses set within them.
University to work on projects.
According to Bruce Knox, vice-president
for research at the lab, about 22 work
mostly at the lab, and 25 work more at
their own offices on campus. The staff,
members come from many fields within
the general field of material science,
including engineering, earth and
mineral sciences, chemistry and
physics. Graduate assistants from these
colleges also work in the lab. According
to Knox, some colleges actively recruit
assistants for the lab but others tend to
ignore it.
The lab does applied science research
of non-organic, non-metallic substances,
according to Knox, and is mostly paid
for through contracts with the state and
federal governments. Private industry
makes a few contracts with the lab. The
University partially subsidizes the lab
by paying the salaries of the employes,
Knox said.
The lab uses very complicated and
usually expensive tools to aid its work,
including electron microscopes,
microprobes, x-ray machines (for x-ray
crystography), numerous furnaces and
high-pressure chambers, and crystal
growing devices capable of growing
small rubies.
“A couple of. years ago,” Knox
reminisced, “the grad students here
were working away, making rubies to
give to their girlfriends for Christmas.”
Knox emphasizes that the lab, while
connected with the University, does a
great deal of work for many different
interest groups.
“Sometimes we do research for
groups we ordinarily don’t work for, if
the subject is interesting, ”he said, citing
an analysis of the tools used by Hopewell
Indians in Ohio. The lab ordinarily
leaves common analysis work to service
labs, “but this was interesting to us,”
Knox said.
The lab also works in advancing
science education and is currently
coordinating a national effort to com
, pletely catalogue material science
books, articles and films for use in
college mini-courses.
One of the more important projects the
lab is working on right now is biomedical
materials.
“We’re interested in making bone
'replacements,” Knox said. “Coral is
similar to bone in structure we use
it as a mold to cast bone-like structures
for use in the human body.” The lab is
also working on artificial blood vessels
for use in replacing damaged arteries,
besides developing pseudo-skin for use
with burn victims and new artificial
hearts for people with heart problems.
Photo by Richard Blum
Photo by Richard Blum