PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- A Berkshire County woman got quite a surprise when she went out to enjoy her porch one day last week.
Elizabeth Hayes McGraw says as she was greeted by the family dog out of the corner of her eye she saw a 4-foot long timber rattlesnake.
Berkshires rattler
McGraw tells The Berkshire Eagle she screamed, grabbed the dog, jumped inside and called police.
She sent a picture to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife district office in Dalton, which confirmed it was a poisonous rattlesnake.
The snakes are classified as endangered in Massachusetts and sightings are extremely rare.
Tom Tyning, a professor at Berkshire Community College, who’s been studying rattlesnakes in the Berkshires for more than 20 years, returned the snake the wild.
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Information from: The Berkshire (Mass.) Eagle, http://www.berkshireeagle.com
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