Nathan A. Schomber probably learned a lesson at a wilderness park last month, when he picked up a rattlesnake and was bitten. And a further lesson when he had an allergic reaction to the antivenin and spent several days in an intensive care unit.

But the National Park Service is driving the lesson home: It is fining Schomber $50 for picking up the snake to begin with.

Schomber, 26, who is from Alloway in southern New Jersey, picked up the snake on July 18 in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, even though signs and park officials warn visitors not to.

He was attending the Appalachian Mountain Club wilderness awareness school and had taught wilderness classes himself, officials say he told them. But after finding the 4-foot-long timber rattlesnake, which is on the endangered species list, he picked it up with his bare hands, showed it to others in his group and played with it for almost an hour, officials said. As he released it, it bit him on a finger of his left hand.

Schomber was taken to a hospital and was given the antivenin meant to combat the snake's poison, but he turned out to be allergic to it and wound up critically ill.

Park officials investigated the incident and waited until Schomber recovered before taking action. Wayne Valentine, New Jersey district ranger at the park, sent Schomber a letter this week informing him that he was being fined $50 for violating rules prohibiting "feeding, touching, teasing, frightening or intentionally disturbing" the wildlife at the 70,000-acre park.

"I guess you could say that Nathan got his just rewards," Valentine said, adding that visitors to the camp were informed in signs and brochures that such snakes were dangerous and should not be handled and that they would more than likely slither back into the brush if they came in contact with a human being, unless they felt threatened.

"The risk with this snake didn't come until they fiddled and fooled with it," Valentine said.

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Schomber could not be reached for comment Friday.

The rules against disturbing the wildlife, Valentine said, are meant to protect both the animals and visitors. He said the maximum fine was $5,000 or six months in jail.

"Some people might say, 'Well, why are you bothering this poor fellow after he's already been in the hospital?"' Valentine said, adding that the fine could have been a great deal more.

"I went with the bare minimum," Valentine said. "There was no way I was going to ignore it with all the public education we've done about why you don't disturb these snakes. He was creating a hazard for others. What happens if somebody else had been bitten and succumbed to the venom and died? I'm sure we'd be dealing with a lot of litigation by now."

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