Hand-Wringing from Utah: Rattlesnake Invasion

A story of a kid who got bitten by a snake and suffered mild symptoms:




After suffering attack, young boy's family warns of rattlesnake dangers | ksl.com:




"9-year-old Tyler Perry was looking on July 13 for a pheasant that had escaped its pen in his family's back yard in Grantsville, and he found a hole — the opening of an old irrigation pipe just beyond a fence.




"I bent down to look for the pheasant in the hole and I got bit by a rattlesnake," Perry told KSL."




All this talk of snakes invading "neighborhoods" strikes me as bizarre. In the video report, I'm seeing hills, brush country, horses in a corral. If your "neighborhood" is the country, can you really be surprised about finding wildlife in it? 




In another report, the same station mentions that rattlesnake sightings have been unusually frequent this year:




Rattlesnake sightings abound in Layton foothills | ksl.com: 




"Animal Control officers say the number of complaints for the dangerous reptiles is way up this year. According to experts, a number of factors could be the cause, including the heat, wildfires, and even a very wet spring last year. Either way, 2012 is shaping up to be the biggest year for snake activity in northern Utah in a long time."





I really doubt these "reporters" have the records to prove that last claim. However, as mentioned in The Red Hourglass, animal populations do run in cycles influenced by the weather.