A 7-year-old girl is expected to fully recover after being bitten by a copperhead snake while camping in Brown County State Park with her family over the weekend.
The bite happened on Saturday, July 13 just after 9 p.m., according to a press release from Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
The girl was bitten when she ran around the outside of the tent at the edge of the wood line, the DNR reported.
The girl sustained puncture wounds on her ankle. Her father saw the snake, the DNR reported.
The family called 911 and met an ambulance at the state park entrance. The girl was taken to Riley Children’s Hospital where doctors stated she will make a full recovery, the release states.
DNR employees tried to catch the snake, but it escaped into heavy foliage.
Indiana Conservation Officers, Brown County Sheriff’s Department and the Nashville Police Department also assisted at the scene along with local first responders.
“While rare, there have been other copperhead bites in the park and they have had the same factors in common. They have occurred after dark and the person involved was not using a flashlight in a poorly lit area,” the release states.
DNR offers the following tips to prevent snake encounters in the park:
- Stay on designated trails and mowed areas since snakes are less likely to come out in the open.
- After dark, snakes will move around to hunt for food or lay on warm roads, so it is a good idea to stay in well-lit areas or use a flashlight.
- Keep your campsite clean. Snakes feed on rodents and human food wrappers. Debris on the ground may draw rodents to the site and the snakes may follow.
- If you are camping in an area where there are snakes, check your site occasionally to make sure no snakes are passing through.
- If a snake does come on your site, stay away from it, keep kids and pets away from it and contact the campground office to let the park staff know.
The DNR states that copperhead snakes mostly feed on small rodents and have a large impact on reducing tick populations, “so they have their part to play in our environment. When we play in the same environment that they live in, we just need to be careful and take a little extra caution,” the release states.
It is illegal to kill snakes on Indiana State Parks property.
