A University of Georgia research associate at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina was “treated and hospitalized for a few days for observation,” after being bitten by a poisonous copperhead snake July 22, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
“The individual is fully recovered and returned to work,” Vicky Sutton-Jackson, a spokesperson for Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, said in an email response to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The Ecology Laboratory is a research unit of the University of Georgia based at the Savannah River Site.
The incident happened while researchers were tracking gopher frogs, Sutton-Jackson said. The temporary research associate was evidently clearing away leaves on the ground in hopes of getting a look at the gopher frog with the tracking signal.
But, unbeknownst to the researcher, the gopher frog had been swallowed by a copperhead. The frog-eating snake, unseen due to the leaves, bit the research associate on the hand, according to the spokesperson.
The research center’s safety director reported the incident to the Savannah River Site operations office.
Copperhead snake bites are rarely deadly although children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are most at risk, according to a National Geographic webpage.
