Rare Timber Rattlesnake Spotted In Eastern PA Neighborhood

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — An extremely rare sighting of one of Pennsylvania's most powerful predators happened in Chester County this week, and no, it was not the northern snakehead, the invasive land-crossing fish. But it was a snake.

A timber rattlesnake was spotted in a residential area in Williston Township Tuesday night. The incident was rare enough in the area that it prompted a police response.

A staple across most of the rest of the state and originally native to every corner of Pennsylvania, timber rattlesnakes have not been common in the heavily overdeveloped southeastern region for decades. Sightings are all but nonexistent in the denser suburbs, like where one of the critters was spotted Tuesday night.

Willistown Township police said the snake was seen under a vehicle on Frazer Avenue.

"Our officers were able to safely trap and remove the snake from the residential area and it will be turned over to the PA Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC)," police said.

Rattlesnakes do call 51 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties home, according to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. But the sighting clearly rattled local authorities, who took a standard criminal fugitive response to the incident.

"If you encounter a rattlesnake, do not approach it," police added. "Please call 911 and we will work with the PFBC to safely resolve the situation."

Encounters are rare, bites are rarer, and deaths are nearly unheard of. Only one person has died from a rattlesnake bite in Pennsylvania in decades: an incident in 2015 out in Elk County.

The areas near Philadelphia and Pittsburgh alike have probably been largely absent of rattlesnakes since around the 1970s, as development boomed and their populations sharply declined. Rattlesnakes were a protected species in Pennsylvania until 2016, when healthy numbers in the middle, more densely forested and rocky parts of the state, led wildlife officials to remove that designation in the Keystone State.

The snake's path to Chester County is unknown, and it's also unknown if there is a den or more nearby. The closest county with an established rattlesnake presence is Berks County, but the areas of its likely habitat are a long way from Willistown.

Life finds a way.

They're still an IUCN listed species, and they're endangered in New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Hampshire, Indiana and Ohio.

While rattlesnakes have a fearsome reputation and admittedly lethal venom, they are vital to a healthy ecosystem. They eat large numbers of mice, rats, rabbits, and other small animals whose numbers can quickly grow out of control, leading to easier vectors for disease carrying mosquitoes, propagation of invasive plants, and more.

They also have no desire to hurt humans.

"They're just out here trying to survive in their natural habitat," Jenna Alleman, a Pennsylvania Waterways Conservation Officer Trainee, told Patch earlier in the summer. "And if you're out hiking and you come across one, they're not out to hurt you, they just want to protect themselves. So if you leave them alone, they're going to leave you alone."