- William Martín, 'Marty', had been studying these reptiles since he was a teenager.
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| Rattlesnake. |
One of the great experts on rattlesnakes dies at the age of 80 after being bitten by one of them
He was barely 17 years old when William H. Martin, 'Marty', knew that he would dedicate his life to the world of snakes and, more specifically, to rattlesnakes: as beautiful as they are dangerous due to the power of their venom. And he worked at it until he was 80 years old, becoming one of the world's great experts on this reptile that always warns before biting with the characteristic sound of the rattle. A few days ago, an encounter with one of them in a family space in West Virginia ended badly: 'Marty' was bitten by a Crotalus horridus, a forest rattlesnake about 2.5 meters long. He lasted a day but ended up dying from the enormous toxicity of the poison.
Martin had traveled the entire American continent, from north to south, to study the fifty known species of rattlesnake. "He was 80 years old and it was hard to keep up with him," 'Marty' collaborator Joe Villari said ruefully.
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Another of the researchers on this snake, John Sealy, valued the work done by Martin, whom he considered the world's leading expert on the rattlesnake. "It is not an easy species to locate, being extremely secretive," he told AP. Sealy also recalled that it was not the first time Martin had been bitten by a snake.
In the United States, this type of event is not common as there are only five deaths from snake bites each year. The number of non-lethal bites, that is, amounts to almost 46,000.