Venomous snake in New York (Brooklyn)

It depends on the kind of snake and the time of year. A NYC winter is going to be pretty harsh on a reptile, and it's not going to do much climbing when it's trying to stay close to the ground for heat.

Many US poisonous snakes are ground snakes (sidewinders/rattlers) or water snakes (cotton mouths), so I'm not sure of their climbing ability.

I'm no herpetologist, but a snake might be drawn to a pile of freshly removed coats that are still warm. Maybe a steam vent. Down here, we occasionally get them (non-poisonous for the most part) in the tires on the playground (along with spiders). The rubber heats up in the sun and the snakes settle in.

If it's a non-native snake, and if NY has laws against "exotic" pets, then I'd imagine the police would go looking for its owner.

As for the climbing part- it depends on the type of snake. Constrictors, such as boas and pythons, you bet. All those constricting muscles allow them to hold their bodies rigid enough to reach lower branches (bars on your play structure) and grip onto branches, swing chains, iron bars. However, they are not venomous.

Rattlesnakes can't climb.

I know that asps -very poisonous, can climb.
this from Scholastic:

Vipers and boas use concertina locomotion to move up trees or other straight objects such as bamboo. The snake curls its tail and lower body around the trunk of a tree and then stretches the front of its body upward, hooking its neck around the tree at a higher point. After getting a firm grip with its neck and forebody, the snake releases its tail and pulls its lower body up. The process is repeated and the snake slowly ascends.

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So, you would have to work in the snake escaping, being carelessly released, etc from a collector or pet shop. Or maybe it was an unwitting stow away on some container ship, you get the idea.

The police would probably call in someone from the zoo or maybe a pet shop to help capture the snake.
Hope some of this helps!

Just saw cyia's post: weather is a factor to consider. Most snakes aren't active below about 70 degrees. Sun will keep them somewhat active possibly as low as 65. They need it to be at least 80 do be able to digest their food well.

I really have seen a Water Moccasin in a tree. It was a young one, and it was in a shrub that was literally in a creek. It tried to get on my shoulder, so I noticed it (eta: it was a really small creek, btw. Long, but very small, so you could have a creek like that by a playground easily).

That was only one time in all the gazillion times I've been out in snaky areas. They do get into boats, though, so they must climb sometimes, apparently.

I see my Black Snakes in the vine on my portico all the time, trying to look like part of the vine . They also like ivy on big ole trees. They aren't poisonous at all, though.

There's also the released pet snakes. I've heard of various parts of the country (Florida comes to mind) having trouble with giant non-native snake species. Someone buys a pet snake (not necessarily a snake that is legal in the US), and when it becomes too big, they release it into the wild. Assuming it's not too terribly cold, I could see a pet snake released in NYC and living primarily in storm drains and sewers.

Not very many people keep venomous snakes as pets. The major pet snakes are constrictors, and the biggest (literally) problem is the Burmese python, which grows to immense proportions. They escaped from a pet story in the Miami area during hurricane Andrew some years ago, and now thousands of them infest the Everglades area, and are destroying the local wildlife. They even prey on alligators. Not long ago the largest Burmese python ever captured in the world was found in Florida, not in its natural habitat in southeast Asia.

But, for story purposes, if you want a really nasty tree-climber, you might go for the black mamba of southern Africa.

caw

Penguin said:

Hey guys

One of the characters in my WIP gets bitten by a venomous snake and dies. How would the police handle it? He was playing in the park when he got bitten. (it's not a random thing, it's crucial to the plot why this happened to him.) I know it's not common to have venomous snakes in Brooklyn, so I'm wondering how it would be handled. Also, can snakes climb up on playgrounds?

Thanks!

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Does your character not seek medical attention?
Does your character seek help, but die from allergic reaction to the antivenom?

Are you looking for a native species? http://www.esf.edu/pubprog/brochure/snakes/snakes.htm

Rattlesnakes don't climb trees or stucco walls, but they could make their way onto a play ground designed to allow small children access.
We've had rattlesnakes climb up into the wheel wells on the pickup, and get up by the engine.

How old is the character? How soon is it between the bite and death?

I'm a bit skeptical about the "death by snake" plot point. Is it intentional, done by someone trying to make it look like an accident?

There are very few snakes in the world that can kill you dead before you have a decent chance to reach a hospital (assuming you're not in rural isolation hours away from help).

And, if you find a climbing snake that works for your story, I could see it climbing an apparatus or a nearby tree, esp in coolish weather. Sometimes the high places are the last places that the sun hits, and they'd go up there for the warmth. Not seen this with snakes, but we caught the neighbor kid's escaped iguana that way - he had made a break for freedom a few months earlier, and everyone had given up, thought he was either miles away or dead. It was fall, we were cleaning up the garden, pulling the morning glory vines out of the 6 foot hedge, and dad grabs a handful of vines that starts to struggle. He pulls it down and there's the iguana, who had been trying to soak up the last of the sun, we suppose.

their bodies rigid enough to reach lower branches

Wicked said:

Does your character not seek medical attention?
Does your character seek help, but die from allergic reaction to the antivenom?

Are you looking for a native species? http://www.esf.edu/pubprog/brochure/snakes/snakes.htm

Rattlesnakes don't climb trees or stucco walls, but they could make their way onto a play ground designed to allow small children access.
We've had rattlesnakes climb up into the wheel wells on the pickup, and get up by the engine.

How old is the character? How soon is it between the bite and death?

I'm a bit skeptical about the "death by snake" plot point. Is it intentional, done by someone trying to make it look like an accident?

There are very few snakes in the world that can kill you dead before you have a decent chance to reach a hospital (assuming you're not in rural isolation hours away from help).

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Snake antivenom is very specific to species. Even with rattlesnakes, the most effective antivenom for the bite is going to be for that specific species so proper ID is very important. If the character doesn't know what bit him or misidentifies it, he might not get the correct treatment and that could easily lead to his death.

It's also very expensive, and difficult to store. If a venomous snake is not native to the area the hospital definitely will not have the antivenom in stock. Several years ago a zookeeper was bit by a gaboon viper from her personal collection. The animals at the zoo were venomoid, but for some reason she didn't have the surgery done on her own animals and no hospitals in the US stock gaboon viper antivenom. She died. They found her clutching a note that said "Call ICU", that's how fast the venom can work.

So native snakes:

Massasauga: They're endangered and only found in two places in the state. Also very very shy.

Copperhead: Unless the victim is a very very small child and people don't notice that it was bitten until too much time passes, I'd have a hard time buying death by copperhead. They'll generally make you really sick, and the antivenom is readily available all over the east. People rarely die from copperhead bites.

Timber rattlesnake: Also very shy and have a limited range. The problem with having any rattlesnake in the middle of a city, is it won't be there naturally. They are very afraid of people. They den together with close family members, and don't usually leave their home range by choice.

If it's really necessary for your character to die by snakebite, a nonnative is most plausible.

If you want it to be obvious that your character was killed by a snake, you either need to have the snake be present (like it bit the character and he killed it so there's a body that can be ID'd) or it needs to be an obvious snake bite wound.

Vipers (rattlesnakes, copperhead, etc.) are hemotoxic. Their venom causes tissue death. Google "rattlesnake bite" if you have a strong stomach, because it's really gross and very distinct. If he's bitten by a non native viper and they try to treat him using native viper antivenom it won't work very well.

Elapids (cobras, coral snakes, brown snakes, etc.) are neurotoxic. They cause death a lot faster, but the cause is a lot more subtle if people aren't looking for snakebite. It's more along the lines of heart problems, difficulty breathing, paralysis, etc. I'd avoid them unless you have someone kill the snake at the time of the bite.

If police decided it was an accidental death, they'd probably depend on animal control to find and trap the animal if it was still at large. Sometimes animal control contracts with local herpetologists experienced with venomous snakes for safely trapping and removing them.

I met a guy who was the venomous snake removal guy for a portion of Virginia. He forearm was pretty messed up from the time some 19 year old guy living in his mom's basement decided it would be cool to have tons of eastern diamondbacks as pets. The shelves with the tanks collapsed one day and he got called in by AC to trap the half dozen rattlesnakes loose in the basement.

He got nailed on the forearm by a very freaked out 8 foot diamondback. It dumped such a huge load of venom in him he would have died except that the fire department was literally five feet behind him and able to start first aid immediately. A large portion of muscle in his forearm died and never grew back.

Many snake bite deaths are related to alcohol use as well. Snakes aren't very confrontational. People drinking alcohol do very dumb things sometimes. It also impairs judgement when they're deciding what to do about the bite, and with a bite every second counts.

FYI - a black mamba (native to a swath of Africa) is one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Death depends on many factors (age, health, where the bite is, did it get the victim with both fangs, etc) but can be as quick at 30 mins or take up to 3 hours. Not sure why your victim wouldn't notice the bite, and freaking out, go seek help.

Anti-venom must be given very shortly after being bitten, and in large quantities.

So if I understand correctly, you're wanting the police to find your vic dead in the park? I'm not a cop, so if you are looking for minute details, don't read on. If general will do I'll throw my two cents in....
As urban police, they may well not notice snake bite marks at the scene, so there would be an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Then they would probably go back to the park with someone experienced in catching snakes to see if they could find the snake. It would be out of the ordinary for someone to be bitten by a snake in Brooklyn as you said, so they would then try to figure out where this exotic snake came from, how it got there. If they could track down the owner then they would go interview them about how the snake got out, etc.
Is that the kind of protocol you're asking for, or more specifics?

Well, there was the Bronx Zoo Cobra...

There are no native venomous reptiles in Brooklyn. But an escape is quite possible and, contrary to both belief and law, there are a number of exotic animals in cages in Brooklyn, including venomous snakes.

The most likely options for your death might be an Australian Inland Taipan or a Gaboon Viper from Africa. Both are illegally available to Brooklynites, both are extremely deadly (and quick) and both could easily survive as an escape, though a freeze would kill them.

As for the police, they would be unlikely to identify the victim to have died of a snakebite in the field, and extremely unlikely to know what to do. But some of the top experts in the world are readily available to them so they won't stay in the dark.

As a side note, snakes rarely bite humans. Partly because they have so little close contact, but mostly because humans aren't food. They don't waste venom, it takes too much to produce it. Have your victim step on or handle the snake roughly and they're more likely to get bit.

Jeff

Canotila covered things in more depth than I did.

Canotila said:

It's also very expensive, and difficult to store. If a venomous snake is not native to the area the hospital definitely will not have the antivenom in stock. Several years ago a zookeeper was bit by a gaboon viper from her personal collection. The animals at the zoo were venomoid, but for some reason she didn't have the surgery done on her own animals and no hospitals in the US stock gaboon viper antivenom. She died. They found her clutching a note that said "Call ICU", that's how fast the venom can work.

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Good grief. And a zookeeper who should have known what kind of safety protocol was needed no less.

One of the venomous keepers I know had a friend post pictures of a bad diamond back bite. They guy's arm was black and purple, and swelled up so much it split like an over-ripe tomato.

Yeah, I looked extensively into keeping them and decided against it.

Gaboon vipers are really deadly, but don't climb. He might step on one if there are leaves everywhere. They're also extremely shy

I'd look into saw scaled vipers. They cause that horrific tissue swelling and necrosis at the bite which will make it an obvious snake bite, they just won't know what species or be able to treat it. Saw scaleds are from Asia, they're pretty common, arboreal, and they're very feisty so a lot of people get bit by them in their native range.

It's plausible one could have gotten loose from a novice keeper that didn't take the snake seriously, or even released when they realized it was going to end up biting them eventually. Once in a while taxidermists buy live venomous snakes to stuff too. I visited a taxidermy forum once where people were sharing resources for buying live wild caught cobras for $50-60. That was pretty horrifying.

Also, not every bite is envenomated, which is another reason why we have a good survival rate for bites. Venom take a lot of energy to produce and they need it to get their food. A lot of bites are "dry" bites because they don't want to waste it on us.

Edit: Saw scaleds also make a sound like a rattlesnake by rubbing their scales together, so he might get bit and report it was a rattlesnake and get the wrong treatment.

Canotila said:

If you want it to be obvious that your character was killed by a snake, you either need to have the snake be present (like it bit the character and he killed it so there's a body that can be ID'd) or it needs to be an obvious snake bite wound.

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I'm wondering if the "dead snake" warnings I've heard from older family members have any truth to them. Supposedly, if you step or fall on a freshly dead venomous snake, the dosage of poison is higher because the snake doesn't "strike" but empties all of the poison its produced at that point.

If it's true, and your character fell on a snake that had escaped into an inhospitable environment, the body could still be under him when he's found.

The first call wouldn't be to the police. It would be to the EMTs, to get an ambulance going as fast as possible. The second 911 would be routed to animal control. If, after all that, the kid died, some ambitious detective with absolutely nothing on his desk might try to figure out where the snake came from - but making any kind of case from that would be tough, so the odds are that not much effort would be put into it - unless there had been other snake attacks in the area.

Cyia said:

I'm wondering if the "dead snake" warnings I've heard from older family members have any truth to them. Supposedly, if you step or fall on a freshly dead venomous snake, the dosage of poison is higher because the snake doesn't "strike" but empties all of the poison its produced at that point.

If it's true, and your character fell on a snake that had escaped into an inhospitable environment, the body could still be under him when he's found.

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I've heard that too, but am not sure if it's true. Dead wasps can still sting though, so not going to risk it. Vipers fold their fangs up when their mouths are closed so you'd probably have to be messing with it to get hurt. I skinned a road killed rattlesnake once and wore really thick leather gloves just in case, especially while working on the head.