Animal encounters are nothing new to Pittsburgh and the stories of people hanging out with various critters in the city prove it.

Much has been made of the black bear wandering Wednesday through Mt. Washington.

More hype surrounded the gigantic black rat snake seen this week in a tree at Frick Park. It turns out that these nonvenomous creatures eat birds, mice and rats. That explains why it was seen in a tree which it has the muscles to climb. Some grow as large as 8 feet.

But birds sometimes prey on these big snakes.

Stephen Bucklin, naturalist educator for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, witnessed a deadly encounter between a red tail hawk and a black rat snake one recent summer.

“It’s like the kind of content you see on nature documentaries and here it was happening in Frick Park,” he said.

Like the snakes, the red tail hawks also call Frick Park home. The hawks love to hunt snakes which are one of their primary prey items.

“This red tail hawk tried to make a meal out of a black rat snake,” said Bucklin. “This one was probably about four or five feet long, and it decided ‘No, you don’t.’ The snake had wrapped itself around the hawk and was strangling the hawk and they were laying there on the ground. The snake has it in a choke hold and that was probably the end of the road for that hawk.”

What he witnessed, however, did nothing to diminish Bucklin’s fondness for the big black rat snakes.

“I’ve had a lot of one-on-one interactions with rat snakes that have been just really peaceful. It’s exciting to see a snake that big just hanging out and doing its’ thing and not being bothered by your presence,” said Bucklin. “Black rat snakes are some of the most approachable snakes in our area. There have been multiple times in the park where I’ve been able to sit and lay within ten feet of these snakes and they’re just kind of doing their thing, going about their business.”

Who would have thought that the Frick Park rat snake would become the talk of the town this week?!

Learn more about this interesting creature, thanks to a blog post from PPC Naturalist Educator, Stephen!https://t.co/lJzZMVi85U#frickpark #frickparksnake #pittsburghparks

— Pittsburgh Parks (@pittsburghparks) April 9, 2021

Bucklin is not Pittsburgh’s only animal expert to have had these kinds of close encounters with wild creatures.

Henry Kacprzyk, 67, Lawrenceville, has worked at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium for 40 years. He serves as curator of reptiles and Kids Kingdom and has wrangled more than his share of crocodiles and Komodo dragons over the decades.

One night the Pittsburgh Police called the zoo for help getting a buck out of the nearby Highland Park Reservoir.

“This deer was swimming around and we were chasing it in the water for about an hour-and-a-half. It was swimming faster than we could row,” said Kacprzyk who was soon aided by Animal Control workers in a motor boat. “Animal Control used a snare pole and then I threw a rope around it and pulled it all the way up to the area where people jog and walk around.”

Unfortunately for Kacprzyk, the deer didn’t want to stop swimming and kept fighting to go back into the reservoir.

“I take my lariat off and everybody let go and I grabbed this buck by his head and dragged him all the way down to a deer trail. He was keeping his feet planted like he was not going to go with me,” said Kacprzyk. “I got him to the deer trail and kicked him out and said ‘Get going.’”

That was not the last Kacprzyk would see of that swimming buck. A couple of days later an injured doe showed up on zoo property and Kacprzyk ended up tending to it.

“All of a sudden everybody starts screaming ‘look out!’ And I turn around and a couple feet away from me it’s a buck and he’s snorting at me — it’s breeding season.”

Kacprzyk thought he recognized it. It was the same buck that he had met in the reservoir.

“I looked at him and said ‘I just pulled your butt out of the reservoir.’ It was the same one, I recognized him. And he looked at me and he just backed away. I think he must have remembered my voice or something about me,” said Kacprzyk. “He backed away and let me attend to this female deer that was injured. We had an understanding. It was kind of cool.”

While an altercation was avoided with the buck, Kacprzyk did get into a tussle with a male kangaroo at the zoo in 1996. It was being aggressive with a zookeeper in a kangaroo barn because female kangaroos were present and the animal was protecting them.

“He came over and tried to kick me and I grabbed a piece of plywood that was close by and dropped it between me and him. He kept on kicking the board and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t hurt,” said Kacprzyk. “He goes to try and box me and I grabbed his forearms and held him like that until I got some other staff to come in so we could maneuver him to a safe location. I don’t think anyone had ever done that to him before and he didn’t know what to do.”

Kacprzyk emphasized that he never wants to hurt an animal. But said he enjoys a good tussle.

“When I was a kid I liked to wrestle and I think that translates to catching a crocodile.”

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