Boy bitten by copperhead snake is recovering

Northern copperhead, found in Connecticut Northern copperhead, found in Connecticut Photo: Contributed Photo / Department Of Energy And Environmental Protection Photo: Contributed Photo / Department Of Energy And Environmental Protection Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Boy bitten by copperhead snake is recovering 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

WESTON — Getting bitten by a poisonous snake doesn’t happen very often in Connecticut — but it does happen, as a boy visiting Devil’s Den Preserve on a class field trip discovered.

The 14-year-old-boy was taken Monday to Norwalk Hospital and later transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital to receive a course in anti-venom, said Mark Blake, a spokesman for the Weston Volunteer Fire Department.

He said the teenager wasn’t released from YNH until Wednesday morning.

“He’s expected to make a full recovery and the swelling has gone down, but he’s still a little sore,” Blake said.

The boy is from “somewhere in Fairfield County, but not Weston,” Blake said, adding that his father requested the details on the identity of the child be kept secret. He was with a group of about 20 teens and their adult chaperones, and they were at Devil’s Den to hike and to experience nature’s grandeur.

Blake said the boy, after spying the copperhead, reached out to it. With lightning speed, the animal reciprocated by giving the teen a pair of puncture wounds on his hand.

The 911 call came in at about 10 a.m. Monday, and by the time the Weston Volunteer Fire Department ambulance and paramedic got to the preserve, the teen was waiting in the parking lot with his worried friends and chaperones.

“He was conscious and in some pain, but not a lot of pain,” Blake said.

Jenny Dickson, a herpetologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said that when copperheads strike to defend themselves, they will typically inject only a small amount of venom.

“They like to conserve their venom supply for the mice and other small mammals that they like to eat,” she said. “And they only want to scare you off. A bite isn’t likely to give you long-lasting issues.”

There are only two species of venomous snakes in Connecticut, the northern copperhead and the timber rattlesnake. Experts say that the copperhead is by far the more common of the two, and that the timber rattlesnake’s rage is limited to northern Litchfield County and a few other pockets.

The timber rattler is endangered and “extremely rare” in the state, Dickson said.

The range of the northern copperhead includes the towns along the shoreline and along the Connecticut River.

“The copperhead relies on its camouflage for defense — they very rarely will act aggressively,” Dickson said. “It’s not unusual for a group of hikers to walk right by a copperhead and not notice that it’s there.”

Greg Watkins-Colwell, a herpetologist with the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, said that copperheads, as with all snakes, exhibit very predictable behavior.

“They’ll only strike at last resort,” he said, “because it’s very dangerous for them. There’s a good chance that they’ll lose a fang.”

Dickson said that although many are fearful of snakes, the slithering animals are “extremely beneficial” to humans because they keep down the populations of mice, moles, voles, rats and other vermin. Copperheads, among the pit vipers, like to hunt at night because they use their loreal pits, situated halfway between the nostril and the eye, to sense heat emitted by small mammals.

“Copperheads and their brethren are very valuable to have around because they are extremely effective in taking care of mice and other animals that we don’t like to see in our homes,” she said.

The Eastern copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen, is often confused with several harmless snakes, including the northern water stake, the Eastern hognose snake and the Eastern milk snake.

The Lucius Pond Ordway/Devil's Den Preserve, at 2.7 square miles, is the largest contiguous nature preserve in southwestern Connecticut. It’s managed by the Connecticut chapter of the Nature Conservancy. It’s mostly in Weston.

As for the particular snake in question, it apparently slithered off, none the worse for wear.