Dan Massey bends down and shines a flashlight into the narrow mouth of a rock outcropping, about 100 feet up a hill. Itโs a known den for black-tailed rattlesnakes.
One is coiled close to the opening of the shelter.
โGorgeous,โ Dan calls to his wife Melanie. โAbsolutely beautiful.โ
Gently, he pulls out the snake and they marvel at its yellow-brown coloring, the dark, splotchy markings running over its body as well as the black mask across its eyes.
Dan passes his right prosthetic foot inches from its head. The snake is nonplussed.
โHeโs not striking,โ Dan explains. โHasnโt struck once. Very, very docile snake.โ
This is a pretty typical Saturday morning for the Masseys.
โThereโs never a time weโre not herping,โ Melanie says.
โHerpingโ as in herpetology, as in prowling for snakes. Itโs the Sahuarita coupleโs passion, one shared with a nationwide audience when the two were featured on the recent Discovery Channel series โVenom Hunters.โ The show followed four different teams and while snake-hunting is a moneymaking venture for the others, self-taught naturalists Dan and Melanie donโt get paid. Instead, they do it out of their desire to educate and further animal conservation. These days, their hobby has added importance as medical researchers study snake venom and its potential to fight disease.
Regardless of whether or not the show is picked up for a second season, the Masseys will still head out, usually in the Santa Rita Mountains they consider their backyard, picking their way through cow pies, heavy brush and bullet casings in search of rattlesnakes.
โThis is what we love to do,โ Melanie says.
It was old-school nature shows like โMutual of Omahaโs Wild Kingdomโ that introduced Dan, 47, and Melanie, 44, to the wonders of wildlife when they were kids. Dan โ who says he was exploring the Santa Ritas while still in diapers โ grew up catching snakes and lizards alongside his dad and older brother.
Melanie, a former vet tech who works as a software solutions manager, also loves animals but didnโt start bagging rattlesnakes in 600-thread-count pillowcases until after meeting Dan in 1997 at the automotive shop where they both worked.
The pair has raised two daughters, been married for 14 years and together for nearly 20, but theyโd been dating only a month when Dan took her out to look for rattlesnakes. They still laugh about that first shared snake encounter.
โSheโd run one way, and Iโd run toward it,โ says Dan, a clinical pharmacist at Banner-University Medical Center.
In no time, though, Melanie was also headed in the same direction after snakes.
โTake me out into all these beautiful landscapes and how they can carve out a life in these harsh environments, it hooked me,โ says the self-described tomboy who also appreciates a good manicure.
Their Sahuarita home is full of photos of their desert and non-desert adventures โ including time with a beluga whale at SeaWorld โ as well as his โnโ hers TVs and PlayStations. Their girls are grown and gone, but they still have โfur babiesโ at home, Wally the schnauzer and Onyx the Staffordshire bull terrier.
Parked out front is their burnt-orange, four-wheel-drive Jeep โ black letters spelling out โRattlerโ grace the rear passenger side. The cupholders typically cradle Red Bull, Dan and Melanie donโt do coffee, and the Jeepโs stocked with aspirin, tweezers, winches and jacks, all things you need for charging through rough terrain. On those occasions when theyโre gone for days, Rattler tugs a pop-up trailer and a generator โ to power Melanieโs blow-dryer.
โMy wife is fine as hell,โ Dan says. โShe likes to do her makeup, she likes to do her hair, so we better have a generator. I bought two generators, one as backup.โ
The Jeep is also equipped with hand controls since Dan is a double amputee. The full story, Dan says, requires a few hours and a beer. The short version: The former mechanic began experiencing debilitating pain in his feet and eventually was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy. He endured 11 surgeries and eight years in a wheelchair before deciding to amputate both legs just below the knee in 2006.
โIt was a gamble, a shot in the dark,โ Dan says.
One that paid off. The painโs gone, and with his prosthetics, he can still hike and capture snakes. He and Melanie have never been bitten, and having prosthetics gives him extra protection in tall grass.
While Dan was recuperating from the amputations and studying to be a pharmacist, he realized just how well herping and his new career meshed. He published a paper on the protein composition of 27 different Mojave rattlesnake venom samples and how they changed geographically across Arizona. Naturally, he and Melanie captured all their subjects. Dan also studied scorpion venom, which required wrangling 120 of them in New Mexico. In the dead of night. In what was originally billed to Melanie as a โvacation.โ
โThey were on the dinner table for three months,โ Melanie says with a laugh. โOur youngest daughter helped collect the venom.โ
Dan curates reptiles for the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center and gives โtox talksโ to medical residents. If heโs speaking about the venom of a particular rattlesnake, heโll go out and bag one to show the students. Having someone like Dan around is a huge asset, says Keith Boesen, the poison centerโs director.
โWhat Dan helps us with is a lot of the behavior of the creature itself,โ Boesen says. โWhen you combine the clinical and the biology of the snake itself, it allows us to be a more effective teacher.โ
It was Danโs work with poison control that hooked him and Melanie up with the Discovery Channel show. Their 15-day shoot last summer was full of long hours in 100-plus degree heat. Melanie recalls one day of filming that was so hot and rigorous, she had to cool down in the Jeep, which was also rigged with cameras.
โIโm so hot, and I lift my shirt up and see the GoPro lights blinking,โ she laughs. โI saidโฆโ
Well, you can imagine what she said.
The Masseys think it would be cool to do TV again. Their dream is to star in โThe Dan and Melanie Show,โ a throwback to the old nature programs they loved as kids. Cameras would just follow them around as they do what they love. The couple knows thatโs a tough sell, though, when reality programs on the air today feature a lot of manufactured drama. These two donโt even fight.
So, theyโll just continue with their private audience-of-two program for as long as they can.
โHopefully, we have another 20, 30 years,โ Melanie says.
As aging makes their hobby more difficult, theyโll do what theyโve always done.
โWe work around it,โ Dan says. โIf I find a snake, Iโll slam on the breaks and Iโll have Mel run out and get it.โ
