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Local Snake Removers Wrangle International Fame

Big Country Snake Removal
Maxwell Hicks and Nathan Hawkins removing snakes from an old cistern at a property in Tuscola.

In March, Big Country Snake Removal responded to a call in Albany.  It was a windy day, and the homeowner was having trouble with his cable.  He had started to get under his house to fix the problem, but he didn't get very far before deciding to call Nathan Hawkins.  He told Hawkins he’d seen a few snakes and wanted them removed.  Those few turned out to be 45.  The video Nathan Hawkins and Maxwell Hicks recorded, documenting the day’s work, went viral.  The video posted on Facebook has been viewed more than 2.5 million times.  It captured the attention of news outlets nationwide, including the Washington Post and USA Today, and even reached readers in Europe and Austrailia.

The video that has brought Big Country Snake Removal international notoriety can be seen here.

Maxwell Hicks describes his views on reptile conservation and explains his concerns about rattle snake roundups on his YouTube channel.

Heather Claborn joined KACU as news director in January 2018. She oversees daily newscast and feature reporting and works with KACU’s news anchors to develop newscasts. She also conducts two-way interviews, reports for newscast and feature stories and maintains the station’s social media and website content. In 2020, Claborn helped staff develop the daily newsletter that is delivered by email.