Bucks Co. Officials Warn Of Venomous Snake In Local Park

BUCKS COUNY, PA — A venomous copperhead snake was recently spotted at a Bucks County park, prompting a warning from local officials.

According to officials with the Point Pleasant Volunteer Fire Company, the poisonous snake was recently seen at High Rocks in Ralph Stover State Park. The reptile was spotted on one of the overlook landings, the fire company said.

"Please BE AWARE of your surroundings when hiking and exploring at High Rocks. Thank you and be safe," the warning said.

The warning comes weeks after a teen was bitten by a copperhead snake at that very park.

The teen was hiking with her friends at the park on June 26, when she encountered the copperhead snake. The teen's mother told The Intelligencer newspaper that her daughter is fond of reptiles and approached it thinking it was a common corn snake.

"Never in her mind did she think a poisonous copperhead snake would be here, until the instant it bit her, she immediately identified the shape of the snake's head and marking," her mother wrote in an op-ed for The Intelligencer.

The teen drove herself to St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, where she received antivenom and morphine injections before being transported to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for further treatment.

The three venomous species of snakes in Pennsylvania are the Eastern Copperhead, Timber Rattlesnake and Eastern Massasauga, according to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. In Bucks County, you're most likely to encounter an Eastern Copperhead, though they rarely attack humans unless provoked.

Venomous snakes possess an indentation or pit on each side of the head between the eye and nostril, while nonvenomous snakes have round eye pupils and don't possess a pit.

If you believe you were bitten by a venomous snake, you should call 911 or the Penn State Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222. You can immediately treat the wound by applying a light constricting band above the bite area.

With reporting by Peter Blanchard of Patch