Predator or prey?

WAURIKA — Dense grass surrounds a small lake off U.S. Highway 70 in Waurika. The grass, food to some animals and home to dozens of others, is hiding a predator.

A group of hunters step lightly through the greening field, looking for any sign of him. They are meticulous in turning over rocks and loose tin, and searching through the boards of a forgotten barn that holds, among other items, a rotting saddle.

The hunters realize their prey is also their predator. A wrong step, a too-slow movement, could yield a deadly bite.

In the warm grass, he moves, sliding over the ground as a light breeze rustles the world above him. He’s hungry and looking for food.

Then, there’s movement. The ground trembles with footsteps as the predator’s heat sensors pick up the warmth of a body moving into sight. To him, it’s just a large, red blob on the horizon, but its size is both unexpected and startling.

Coiling his body to help give him height, the predator lifts himself off the ground and begins to shake his rattle in warning.

It’s the sound the human hunter has been listening for. The predator has once again become the prey.

Metal pinchers, a few feet long, reflect in the sunlight as they reach out toward the hissing snake, whose attempt to scare away the blob have not worked.

As the serpent is lifted off the ground and placed into a plastic white bucket, the small team of hunters lets out a sigh before continuing their search. Somewhere in the field, there are more.

R.J. Yeager is one of the hunters who’s come out for the annual Fangtastic Waurika Rattlesnake Hunt. It’s his third time to participate and though he’s only 15, the Ardmore teen is no stranger to the snake.

His father, Jim Yeager, who’s helping R.J. in the hunt, talked about his son’s early fascination with the “belly-crawlers.”

“The first one he caught was about as long as he was,” Jim Yeagar said, with a chuckle, as the two look under some rusted metal sheets. R.J. was 4 at the time and when it became clear the interest was not just a phase, his parents began to make sure their son knew what he was doing.

“I made him start telling me what (breed the snakes) were before he started picking them up,” Yeager said, explaining how R.J. began identifying, learning the patterns and recognizing which snakes were venomous and which weren’t.

R.J. catches both non-venomous and venomous snakes, studies them a few days, and then releases them back into the wild. If he can get them to eat in captivity — an easier feat with non-poisonous snakes than with venomous ones — R.J. keeps them as pets.

“I keep them for awhile to see if I can get them to eat,” R.J. said. “If they won’t, I’ll let them go.”

Michelle Yeager has one simple rule for her son: No venomous snakes in the house.

“Non-venomous. That’s my rule,” she said.

R.J. wants to be a herpetologist, and the home schooler is getting the added benefit of seeing and experiencing science first-hand. But the initial attraction to serpents seems to be in his blood, something he was just born with.

“I’ve just always liked them,” he said. “It gives you an adrenaline rush.”

R.J. noted he’s easily caught more than 100 snakes since capturing the first 11 years ago. Last summer, he caught 15 water moccasins alone.

It’s a hobby that worried his mother at first. After all, her son has felt fangs pierce his skin more times than he can count, and though it’s never been by a venomous snake, that possibility exists. Over the years, Michelle’s worries have subsided to jitters, and she occasionally goes out with her husband and son to video the hunts and take photos to record what they catch.

Along the way, the trio has learned a few things here and picked up a few things there. When they’re on the hunt, they know exactly where to look to find the creature.

“We look under everything,” Jim said. “Snakes are always where the food is. Look for rats and mice.”

And venomous baby snakes are to be avoided whenever possible.

“The adults can control how much venom they let out. The babies can’t, so they just let it all out in one bite,” R.J. explained, on his way back the family vehicle at the end of the afternoon.

After searching for more than an hour, the hunt is over. As the two rattlesnakes the family caught are loaded into the truck, R.J. finds a brown lizard and places it gingerly on his hand.

The lizard lies there, sunning itself on the boy’s hand as a breeze gently caresses the surrounding world. Somewhere beyond the fence, in the acres R.J. just trekked, a rattlesnake slithers through the waving grass, a predator that’s still hungry.

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