Copperheads Are Richmond Natives

by Rex Springston 07.2023

While pulling weeds in Richmond's Byrd Park last August, Karl Huber felt a sharp pain in his right index finger.

"It felt like a pin went straight through my finger," said Huber, 70, who lives in the Fan District.

Huber, a longtime park volunteer, had been bitten by a copperhead. The venomous snake had been hiding in a bunch  of weeds Huber had grabbed. The snake pierced Huber's heavy leather glove with one fang.

The bite sent Huber to Retreat Doctors' Hospital, where a doctor drained bloody fluid from the swollen finger and prescribed pain meds. Part of Huber's hand turned black from severe bruising, and that lasted about a month.

"I still don't have feeling on the tip of my finger," Huber said. "I don't know if that's ever going to come back."

Huber thought the encounter a freak occurrence -- until he got bitten again in April. Again, he was struck in the park by a copperhead hiding in weeds he was pulling.

A friendly, fit, balding man with gray hair, Huber is a member of the Friends of Byrd Park, a group of park supporters. He had never heard of a confirmed copperhead sighting in Byrd before that August bite. 

Now, there have been at least five credible sightings in the past year.

"I've been working over there for 14 years, then I get bit twice in eight months," Huber said. "I was not ever expecting to see another (copperhead)."

Huber's second bite was less serious. The snake struck his glove -- hanging from the glove for an instant -- and apparently injected little or no venom. Some swelling lasted about two weeks. Huber didn't see a doctor.

Both snakes were about 20 inches long.

"My biggest concern then was, my God, how many of these are there?" said Huber, a part-time state employee.

TV news reports indicate 2023 is an unusually big year for copperheads. "Copperhead sightings on the rise in Central Virginia," reads one online headline.

Recent sightings raise two questions: Are we really experiencing a copperhead boom? And what the heck is going on in Byrd Park?

J.D. Kleopfer, Virginia's state herpetologist, or reptile expert, doesn't buy the idea of a copperhead boom.

Every year, when the weather gets warm and copperheads start moving, multiple news outlets ask Kleopfer if copperheads are increasing. He estimates he has done 100 interviews on the subject -- "head and shoulders above anything else."

"There's is no scientific evidence that copperhead populations are exploding," Kleopfer said.

Populations can seem to take off for several reasons, including the rapid spread of sightings through social media, he said. "Everyone has a camera in their pocket now."

As for the cluster of Byrd Park sightings, Kleopfer said he wasn't sure what was happening. "I wouldn't say it's too unusual because there's nothing I can really compare it to... It's definitely kind of interesting."

It's possible that one or two snakes are responsible for multiple sightings, Kleopfer said.

How do you explain Huber getting bitten twice in eight months?

"It could be that he's just very, very, very unfortunate," Kleopfer said.

I started checking into this supposed copperhead boom after stepping within inches of one myself in Byrd Park in mid-June. The snake, about two feet long, lay wonderfully camouflaged right in the middle of a trail I was walking. 

A seen snake is a safe snake, the saying goes. If you see it, you can keep your distance, take photos and move on. I didn't see this one until I was literally stepping over it and glimpsed something wriggling between my feet. I think we startled each other. 

I stepped past the snake, turned and immediately recognized it as a copperhead. Its thick, light-brown body was overlain with darker-brown, hourglass-shaped bands. Some copperheads are brighter and more coppery, and some are almost pink. This snake looked like a glob of dirt and sticks. 

Now it lay stone still in a sort of half coil and gave me a cold stare that I interpreted as saying, "Come no closer."

I moved back a couple of steps. The snake never struck. I took photos.

I am outdoorsy, and I like snakes, but the encounter got my heart pounding. I used a long stick to flip the snake just off the trail, to protect other hikers and to protect the snake from any misguided do-gooders.

It is illegal to kill a snake in Virginia unless it poses an imminent threat to you or your property -- say, if a copperhead is in your garage or a rat snake is in your chicken coop.

Some people are scared witless of snakes, even harmless ones. But in a typical year, the number of people who die from venomous snake bites in Virginia is zero. Nearly 1,000 people die each year on Virginia’s highways. 

The last death in Virginia from the bite of a venomous snake occurred in Chesterfield County in 2012, and that involved a man bitten by an exotic pet, authorities say.

The Virginia Poison Center at Virginia Commonwealth University has logged about 55 venomous snake bites -- nearly all from copperheads -- as of early summer this year. That closely tracks the past two years, said the center's director, Rutherfoord Rose. Bites were up in 2020 as people flocked to the outdoors, probably in response to covid, Rose said.

"Our data do not support a boom in copperhead bites this year compared to the last two years," Rose said. The center serves 3.3 million people in central and eastern Virginia.

Kleopfer said people need to chill out about copperheads. "The level of threat they pose to public safety is pretty overblown."

So, no overall copperhead boom. But in Byrd Park, a natural history mystery.

Byrd, one of the city's most popular parks, sprawls across 287 acres next to Maymont and just north of the James River. It features, among other things, three lakes, tennis courts and a woods at its southern end that is home to deer, owls and other animals. The copperheads have been spotted in and around that woods. Trails in the woods are frequented by bikers, hikers, dog walkers and parents with children.

Jym Coleman, a city parks employee who sometimes works in Byrd, said he knew of four credible copperhead sightings there since last summer. Huber's second encounter made five.

Plans call for putting up signs asking the public to "respect nature,"  Coleman said. There has been no decision on whether to mention the copperheads specifically.

Copperheads -- officially called eastern copperheads -- are common in our suburbs and rural areas but much less so in the city. I had never seen one in Richmond. City parks spokeswoman Tamara Jenkins could find no reports of  sightings in the parks.

Tracking copperhead sightings is maddening. Many people don't report their encounters. After all, there is no one place to report them. And many other people see harmless snakes and insist they saw copperheads

Through interviews, social media and the iNaturalist website, where people report various animals and plants, I tracked down a sprinkling of credible copperhead sightings, often with photos, in city locations including James River Park, Forest Hill Park, Powhite Park, Larus Park and even the residential Bellevue and Windsor Farms areas. Curiously, I could find no reports for the 262-acre Bryan Park.

iNaturalist shows two copperhead sightings in Byrd Park, in April 2019 and June 2021.

Copperheads have shown up a couple of times in recent years in city parking decks after apparently hitching rides on cars.

Rich Young, an amateur wildlife photographer who frequents the James River, said he has seen copperheads in the city about twice a year on average for the past 7 or 8 years.

"My assumption is that they're in every park," Young said.

He admires the snakes' colors and patterns. "They are beautiful."

Copperheads are native animals that belong here and should be left alone, said Ralph White, the former longtime manager of James River Park. "Keep your eyes open, and you'll be OK." 

White called the recent Byrd Park sighings "a strange and wonderful occurrence" and a sign of a "richer environment."

There are three venomous snakes in Virginia -- rattlesnakes in the mountains and near the coast, cottonmouths near the coast and copperheads almost everywhere. Of the three, you will only find the copperhead in the immediate Richmond area.

The copperhead's venom is the least potent of the three. Death by copperhead is extremely rare. Still, its bite can cause great pain and swelling and, sometimes, more serious problems. If you are bitten on the finger and don't see a doctor fast enough, for example, you could lose the finger. 

Copperheads use venom to subdue their prey, including mice and small rodents. The venom destroys soft tissue. If you are bitten and experience swelling or pain, go to a doctor. Don't try to suck the venom out, and don't apply a tourniquet.

If your pet is bitten, keep it quiet and take it to a veterinarian. Copperhead bites are occasionally fatal to pets. The smaller the pet, the greater the risk.

Huber's experience notwithstanding, copperheads are unaggressive animals that just want to be left alone, experts say. But if you get too close, they will strike to defend themselves.

"No snake sees a person as prey or a fight to win," said Travis Anthony, a past president of the Virginia Herpetological Society, a scientific and educational group.

"Their response is usually sit tight and hope the large animal"  -- that's you or me -- "goes away, or find the escape route."

I often see Huber and Coleman working in Byrd Park. They have helped turn a section smothered by kudzu, the notorious "vine that ate the South," into a flowery attraction. 

Twice bitten, Huber is still weeding away in the park. But he no longer uses a small, three-prong hand tool, which put him within inches of the copperheads.

"I use a big long" -- he stretched out the word -- "three-prong tool on a pole. I've learned my lesson...I don't want this to happen again."

Huber is also on alert for other copperhead reports. "I want to know if this is a real problem or just a chance thing."