Is Lake George, New York a Timber Rattlesnake Breeding Ground?

Imagine you're on vacation, minding your own business, trying to relax, and BOOM. Right there in front of you is a Timber Rattlesnake.

That's a vacation story that will be told for years to come and it sounds like that's exactly what happened in a popular Upstate New York vacation Destination last month.

ECO's Remove Lake George Rattlesnake

On June 20th Department of Environmental Conservation Officers were in the Lake George area doing some training regarding how to handle rattlesnake situations.

ECO's Thibodeau and Kelley were in the middle of the training course in Lake George when they got the call of a rattlesnake near one of the hotel properties. It appears the training courses worked, the DEC explains:

The Officers responded to the location, successfully caught the young timber rattlesnake, and relocated it into the wild.

A job well done by ECO's Thibodeau and Kelley. The report was shared on The DEC social media pages and towards the end of the post the DEC added something that caught my eye:

Lake George and the South Bay area on Lake Champlain contain a large breeding population of timber rattlesnakes

Now one has to wonder...

Is Lake George New York a Rattlesnake Breeding Ground?

As a frequent Lake George visitor, I can tell you personally I've never seen a rattlesnake on the hiking trails or near the water.

So I did a quick Google search about Rattlesnakes in Lake George and the first thing that popped up was something called Rattlesnake Island. Needless to say, I felt uneasy.

What is Rattlesnake Island? Well, it's actually called Sagamore Island and it's not really inhabited by snakes, but they do end up there sometimes. There are a few videos of rather larger rattlers on the island.

We shouldn't be too surprised,  I mean, it is the great outdoors after all.

These tales sort of remind me of the stories of Bannerman Island and how the infamous island was supposedly run over by rattlesnakes.

Several officials at Bannerman confirmed that tale to be false.

Snake Infested New York State

We know, we know. Rattlesnakes are not uncommon in New York State, we understand that they live here and are usually seen from late June until early October.

With that being said, here are some places you should avoid if you don't want to run into a rattlesnake, plus more about venomous snakes that can be found across the region below: