Stephen Mullin has wrestled snakes before—not as a hobby, but rather as a necessity.

Mullin, a biology professor at Eastern, deals with snakes daily and sometimes, during feeding time, things get out of hand.

“They can’t distinguish between when the rat smell ends and the snake begins, so they try to eat each other,” Mullin said. “We have to pry a tongue depressor in there to separate them.”

When reptiles on display on the first floor of the Life Sciences Building need to eat, Mullin and his volunteers feed them rats as food.

During feeding, the two snakes, one a central rat snake and the other a western rat snake, are separated to prevent them from preying on each other. Therefore, if they are reintroduced into their display too close to each other, they smell the rat that has touched the others’ skin.

However, just because Mullin has dealt with this situation more than once, he said it does not warrant a call from a troubled homeowner.

“They think I’m part of a pest control service,” Mullin said. “When I get calls like that it makes me think people are not aware of what is in their own backyard.”

Mullin said there have not been venomous snakes in the area for the past 100 years, so residents should not be so distraught about seeing a slithery intruder.

“The only way venomous snakes could be (in Coles County) is if someone raises them illegally and they escape … or if someone poaches one and releases it,” Mullin said. “Otherwise, our habitat does not support venomous snakes.”

In addition to his published works on herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles, Mullin serves as the editor for a scholarly journal of a similar name. Herpetologica is a quarterly peer-reviewed publication that normally features nine or 10 articles.

Some of that research has translated to real-life solutions. For example, Mullin did a study on types of trees in relation to bird nesting success rate, with type of bird and type of snake predator held constant.

In other words, the rat snake, known for its climbing ability, had been preying on songbirds in one area more than the other had and they wanted to know why.

During the study, Mullin and his researchers found that birds that chose a select few trees survived more often than the rest.

After further testing, they found vine presence was the real cause for the nesting success rate variation.

Trees without vines for snakes to use as grip proved most effective at protecting bird populations.

“If you were to say to a forest manager, go around and trim the vines from this particular tree species, you will render this particular bird inaccessible to this particular predator,” Mullin said. “They are able to manage that habitat to support (the songbird) without making life too difficult for the rat snake to where they go extinct.”

Mullin, in his 16th year at Eastern, said that is just one part of why he loves his job and his position in life.

The others revolve around Mullin’s curiosity and thirst for knowledge, which he said, will never die.

“We will never run out of questions to ask,” Mullin said. “I don’t envision a situation where I retire down to some convalescent home in Florida and just sit there playing bridge with somebody. That’s just not who I am.”

Nick Ruffalo can be reached at 581-2812 or nfruffalo@eiu.edu.