Out with a bang: Snake rodeo culls Lake Providence snakes

A snake floated so still it appeared to be dead on the water under a cypress tree on Lake Providence. T.J. O'Neal aimed his Benelli M2 shotgun at it.

Bang!

Water sprayed, falling around the snake's now-headless body.

The snake was an unsuspecting victim of the annual East Carroll Parish Snake Rodeo on Saturday. The event, which is sponsored by the East Carroll Parish Sheriff's Office, attracts teams of two or three who spend the day trawling the lake in their fishing boats looking for snakes to shoot. The goal is to keep snakes from becoming overpopulated.

Because of the high water and cool temperatures this spring, snakes have been slow to emerge. Wayne Parker, an agent with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said he thought the rodeo would be successful because of the temperatures above 80. Parker was off-duty for the day and planned to participate in the rodeo with his 12-year-old son.

O'Neal and his teammates, Brandom Putman and Phillip Morris, were disappointed that they had only seen a few snakes. Of the three they shot, two sank too quickly to retrieve their bodies from the lake with a net. By 1 p.m., they had collected only one snake.

The majority of snakes that live in Lake Providence are non-venomous, Jared Streeter of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Heritage Program said. Species common in the area include broad-banded water snakes, Mississippi green snakes, yellow-belly water snakes and diamond-backed water snakes. Sometimes venomous copperheads, which are not water snakes, lie along the banks of the lake. Cottonmouths, which are venomous, are also killed frequently during the rodeo. A state biologist identifies and counts the snakes killed during the event.

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Amphibian and Reptile Enthusiasts both work at the event to educate people about the types of snakes that live on the lake. While the goal is not to keep people from killing the snakes, Streeter said that it is important to understand the effect killing a high number of non-venomous snakes has on the lake.

"If you remove the non-venomous snakes it creates the opportunity for the venomous snakes to move in," Streeter said.

Steven George, a biologist based in Vicksburg with the Army Corps of Engineers, said he has helped collect data at the snake rodeo for 11 years. According to George, the hunters killed 166 diamondback water snakes, 84 cottonmouths, 15 broad banded water snakes, six yellow-belly water snakes and two rat snakes on Saturday. The longest snake killed was a 68 inch rat snake.