R.I.P. To Marty Martin, The "Ambassador Of Rattlesnakes", Who Passed Away From A Rattlesnake Bite
Daily News - William “Marty” Martin, a renowned snake researcher who dedicated his life’s work to the study of timber rattlesnakes, died last week after he was bitten by a snake on the property of his West Virginia home, his wife said. He was 80.
Martin, who was described as the “ambassador of rattlesnakes” in a 2019 profile on the online journal Terrain, was just 13 years old when he documented the first instance of timber rattlesnakes in the Bull Run Mountains in Virginia.
At the age of 17, he became a founding member of the Virginia Herpetological Society, and for 30 years he served on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s timber rattlesnake task force, which worked to preserve the species, according to Reptiles Magazine.
Martin also co-authored the 472-page book “The Timber Rattlesnake: Life History, Distribution, Status, and Conservation Action Plan,” which was released in August 2021.
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Villari, who was also a friend of the “absolute rattlesnake legend,” noted that Martin acted as one of snakes’ “earliest ambassadors — far before the eruption of the ecological and animal welfare enlightenment of the 1970s.”
His happiness was “intrinsically tied to the presence and well-being of venomous snake populations, especially his beloved timbers,” he wrote, adding that at the age of 80, “he was more physically capable than most 20-year-olds that I have scrambled across the mountain with.”
John Sealy, a rattlesnake researcher from Stokesdale, said that Martin was considered by many in the community of snake experts as the foremost authority on timber rattlers, a species he studied since childhood.
God damn snakes man.
Marty Martin was basically one of them. Guy spent 80 years of his life sticking up for them, trying to enlighten the world on them this is the thanks he gets?
Imagine loving anything as much as Marty Martin loved snakes? Enough to dedicate nearly 100 years on this planet to it? That's insane.
The worst part is that he wasn't even on their turf. They came onto his! Poor bastard was bitten on his own property. He was probably just minding his own business, thinking he was homies with all snakes by this point, but nope. That snake that did him in is probably a dead snake crawling now. His snake buddies probably want his skin because he just went rogue and took out the man who was literally "the rattlesnake ambassador". Now human vs. snake relations will never be more tense.
The same scenario played out a few years ago with the "Grizzly Man," who spent his life tracking and documenting grizzly bears before eventually being eaten by one.
I think the moral of the story here is nature gives zero fucks about us, and these hoes ain't loyal.
Rest in peace Marty.
p.s. - Aesop was right
"One winter a Farmer found a Viper frozen and numb with cold, and out of pity picked it up and placed it in his bosom. The Viper was no sooner revived by the warmth than it turned upon its benefactor and inflicted a fatal bite upon him; and as the poor man lay dying, he cried, 'I have only got what I deserved, for taking compassion on so villainous a creature.'"
— Aesop's Fables, "The Farmer and the Viper"