Rescuers Free Entangled Snake — Just in Time for Her to Give Birth
Earlier this month, a homeowner contacted Tidewater Wildlife Rescue with an urgent plea: a common garter snake was hopelessly tangled in netting in their yard. Could anyone help?
Volunteer Serenity Reiner and her partner, Daniel, rushed to the scene. Using scissors, they carefully cut away large portions of the net. Daniel gently held the snake while Reiner snipped the strands closest to her body.
“We were very focused,” Reiner told The Dodo. “We wanted to be as fast as possible to limit her stress.”
Just as they neared the end of the rescue, something incredible happened — the snake began giving birth right in their hands. Reiner quickly removed the last bits of netting as the mother snake delivered two tiny babies.
The team brought the mother and her newborns to a wooded area behind the house and released them safely back into the wild.
While baby garter snakes may be small, they’re surprisingly self-sufficient. According to the U.S. National Park Service, garter snakes typically give birth to 15–40 babies, and the young are fully independent from birth. Reiner suspects the mother gave birth to many more once she was safely back in the forest.
She advised the homeowners to opt for wildlife-safe netting in the future and expressed relief at the rescue’s outcome.
“I felt so much joy knowing that she was able to go back to her normal life unharmed,” Reiner said.