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LOGAN — The playground at Gibbons Park in Logan has been closed after a group of children reported snakes slithering in the area.
It’s not clear yet if they are rattlesnakes, but animal control and police were figuring out how to reopen the playground safely, as they believe several snakes are still in the area.
Demi Larsen, 11, saw the snakes firsthand. “We were all pretty scared. We all tried to stay back,” she said.
Larsen said she was with friends Thursday night when they came across the snakes at the park.
Video provided to KSL by the Logan Police Department showed what looks like a rattlesnake.
“We all started leaving and then one of my friends heard another rattle and he went and looked and then it went back into this little crack,” Larsen said.
She said they saw two snakes — one was small.
Her mother, Angi Larsen said, “The kids came home the other day and said, ‘The park is closed. It’s the same signs that they put up for COVID but this time it’s for rattlesnakes.’”
She admitted that it’s unnerving to see the snakes so close by.
“We see snakes up here for sure. I mean, we moved into their neighborhood,” Larsen added.
Police and animal control are trying to keep them at bay, at least until they can get help from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
“We see the holes in which they’re hiding and living but we don’t know exactly if they’re rattlesnakes,” said Jeff Simons, assistant chief with the Logan Police Department. “But in any event, we’ll still treat it as though they are.”
Simmons said they will play it safe and eventually move the snakes somewhere not so close to the neighborhood.
Angi Larsen added, “I’ve never known them to be aggressive, like attacking anybody or anything. They’re just minding their own business, making their noises and scaring the crap out of all of us.”
According to the DWR, rattlesnakes come out at dawn and dusk.
They are a protected species and, for the most part, will not attack unless they are threatened with no way to escape.
Only the playground at Gibbons Park is currently closed. Residents may continue to use the rest of the park.
