THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260514
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANE HARPER, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
After tracking a dozen canebrake rattlesnakes through Chesapeake's Northwest River Park for nearly three years, biologists Alan and Barbara Savitzky said goodbye to the last of the venomous reptiles Thursday.
As strange as it may sound, it was a sad day for the Savitzkys.
The couple had hoped to continue following the snakes, using tiny radio transmitters surgically placed in the animals' bodies. They believe their findings would have helped determine why the snakes' numbers have plummeted to the point that they have been on Virginia's endangered species list since January 1992.
But city and state officials ordered the Savitzkys last September to stop the project.
The snakes had wandered onto nearby farmland, and the farmers feared that the couple's findings might cause their land to be declared a habitat for the endangered snakes and eventually lead to restrictions on use of their land.
The Savitzkys and officials with the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and argued unsuccessfully that such fears were unfounded because only the federal government, not the states, has the power to restrict land use in such situations. Because the snake is plentiful in several other Southern states, it was unlikely that the federal government would impose such restrictions, they argued.
The Savitzkys, however, were allowed to continue their study until the end of this month so they could wait until the snakes were ready to have the transmitters removed.
Living up to their promise, they began collecting the snakes one by one earlier this month and removing the $300 transmitters.
The transmitter from the last of the snakes still living in the park was removed Wednesday night during a 40-minute operation in Alan Savitzky's lab at Old Dominion University, where he works as an associate professor of biological science. The 4-foot-long snake was then released Thursday.
The couple still has one snake to track down.
As they removed one of the inch-and-a-half-long radio transmitters from one of the snakes Wednesday night, the couple talked of their frustration and anger at having to end the project abruptly with so many questions still unanswered.
``We are simply biologists who were trying to answer a biological question,'' Alan Savitzky said.
While the Savitzkys realize it is difficult for some people to understand why they would want to protect the snakes, Alan Savitzky said it is simply a part of the ecosystem that needs to be kept intact. Any time a species becomes endangered, it is a signal that the overall environmental system is not functioning properly, he said.
The animal doesn't pose any real threat to people. No deaths have from the snakes have been recorded in Virginia, and bites have been rare and successfully treated, said Barbara Savitzky, assistant professor of biology at Christopher Newport University.
Two of the most outspoken opponents of the project - State Del. J. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake, and Fleetwood Culpeper Jr., chairman of the Chesapeake Farm Bureau's legislative committee - said they understood the couple's frustrations, but were pleased to hear that the project was finally ending.
Culpeper and Forbes said they had no problem with the study; they just didn't want it done at Northwest River Park. Conducting such a study on government land, where private property would not become involved and where park visitors would not be endangered by the poisonous snakes, would be better, they said.
The Savitzkys hope to undertake the study elsewhere. So far they have not been able to get funding from the Department of Games and Inland Fisheries, which asked the couple to conduct the study in the first place. by CNB