Watch where you step: rattlesnakes descend on the Texas Capitol

Indiana Jones once narrowly escaped death in a trap-riddled temple in Peru, but even a fictionalfidiophobe And the archaeological hero will likely avoid the Texas Capitol for the next few days. That’s right, all of you: it’s rattlesnake week.

percussively inclined snakes should appear in Austin this week as part of an annual tradition, according to a press release posted on Twitter by Texan journalist Scott Braddock. At the Capitol, a group called the Sweetwater Jaycees will display a selection of specimens, hold discussions about snake safety, and provide information on how the animals behave and how to react if you come face to face with them. Also, daredevils can apparently “stroke” slippery creatures.

State Rep. Stan Lambert, a Republican from Abilene, is touting the rattlesnake stay on social media.

“Guess who’s visiting their capital?” he tweeted on Monday, along with photos of rattlesnake guests sunbathing on the floor of the open-air Capitol rotunda.

Guess who visits their capital? #HD71 #txlege pic.twitter.com/ri3vQj4jsF

— Stan Lambert (@RepStanLambert) February 13, 2023

If you’re wondering what the hell is going on, you’re not alone. The tradition has been observed for decades ahead of “the world’s largest rattlesnake roundup” in Sweetwater, a city of about 10,500 more than 220 miles west of Dallas.

The roundup, which begins on the second weekend of March, allegedly began as a way to reduce the area’s uncontrolled population of venomous snakes. The Texas House of Representatives website, in Lambert’s press release about the 2018 event, explains that “rattlesnake overpopulation is hurting local farmers and ranchers who are losing their livestock to these natural predators.”

However, the reaction to the tradition is ambiguous. Some social media users have appeared. sincerely excited to find out about the presentation ahead of this week’s roundup. Other far-fetched jokes about the concept (“Every week is snake week in #txlege”) and expressed concern about rattlesnake treatment.

The unusual custom has generated many headlines in the past. Texas Watcher in 2017, noting that “Diamondback Day” has quite a few supporters and opponents. Every February since 1981, Sweetwater Jaycee’s snake trainers travel to the state capital in a van full of snakes.

Rattlesnake rounds are reported to increase the safety of the region, in addition to taking tens of thousands of visitors and millions of dollars for Nolan County every spring, the article says. Yes, but: “It’s also been criticized by scientists and animal rights advocates for a controversial main event in which thousands of rattlesnakes – a record 24,000 pounds last year – were dumped into a pit, milked for their venom, stunned, flayed alive skins and eaten.”

Sounds like a scene straight out Indiana Jones.