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Rattlesnakes
"The
focus of this article is on rattlesnakes, however, it
bears repeating that reptiles potentially dangerous
to man account for only a small proportion of the total
reptile assembly. Of all the snakes native to the Southwest
(USA), only the rattlesnakes and coral snake pose any
threat to man."
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Alex
with Stoney, a Walker.
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Alex is
a wildlife ecologist whose fascination with reptiles
– and particularly rattlesnakes – began at an early
age. "I grew up about twenty miles outside of Tucson,"
Alex says, "and rattlesnakes were simply part of
my early background." In 1955, at the age of nine,
he treated his first snake bite after his younger brother
was bitten while playing in their front yard. "Rattlesnakes
were a fact of life where we lived. We learned to live
with and around them."
As a boy
Alex frequently accompanied his geologist father into
the field, and there had many of his early encounters
with the creatures that eventually captured his imagination.
"My father encouraged my interest in herpetology
and taught me to see the local wildlife as integral
parts of the Sonoran Desert landscape. He introduced
me to the field of ecology and simultaneously instilled
an appreciation of desert ecosystems that has remained
since."
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Since leaving
Arizona Alex has lived on both the east and west coasts and
in the Pacific Northwest, where he completed undergraduate
studies at Oregon State University. He has worked as a wildlife
biologist for state, federal and tribal agencies and spent
two summers at sea with Japanese fishermen. "But always,
no matter where I was, the desert called. I knew I would eventually
go home." In 1989 Alex left the northwest and moved to
Carson City, Nevada. Three years later, through what he calls
a "rather curious string of events" he found himself
at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Barrick Museum of
Natural History – right in the middle of the Mojave Desert.
At UNLV he completed a Master’s Degree that offers an explanation
of why his favorite critter, the western diamondback, apparently
shuns the Mojave. "I think it’s just too hot and dry
for them here. Diamondbacks thrive in the more moderate Sonoran
and Chihuahuan deserts south and east of the Mojave, but occupy
only those areas of extreme southern Nevada where Sonoran
Desert influences ameliorate to some extent the harsh, local
conditions."
Alex lives in
Henderson, Nevada with his wife Lee, two cats, a cockatiel,
and his field companion – a Walker coonhound named Stoney.
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Webmaster:
Sam Madamba
22 July, 2000
Copyright
© 1999-2000 UplandBirdDog.com
and Alex Heindl
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