Ivy Kuberry, an environmental technician with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, shows children several snakes caught at Moraine State Park on Saturday.

MUDDY CREEK TWP — A weekend of outdoor programming near the shores of Lake Arthur included a Saturday crash course on Pennsylvania snakes for the 40 people who came to learn a little about the slithering creatures.

Though environmental education specialist Mike Shaffer spoke of snakes of various sizes and levels of danger, he and fellow Department of Conservation and Natural Resources employee Ivy Kuberry only were able to catch a few small snakes to show at the event at Moraine State Park.

They let the crowd see and touch garter snakes and a brown snake. Both, they said, were freshly caught that morning in firewood piles, where the snakes were returned after the event.

Returning those snakes was key: Shaffer made a case throughout the presentation for keeping the legless critters alive, and offered advice on avoiding the nastier varieties.“You start seeing snakes that are big and fat, and they look really strong,” Shaffer said. “They've got the distinct neck, the big round head. Those are the snakes you really need to be wary of. For the most part though, I've never seen a rattlesnake here.”Because mice reproduce so much and so quickly, Shaffer explained, one snake eating a female mouse could deplete a population by hundreds.Don't want mice around your house? Then don't bother your local snakes, he said.<i>Read more in the Butler Eagle</i>

Mike Shaffer, an environmental education specialist, shows a small snake he caught that morning to participants in Saturday’s Venomous Snakes of PA program in Moraine State Park.Tanner Cole/Butler Eagle