A herpetologist once called the “ambassador of rattlesnakes” for his work in understanding and advocating for the poisonous snakes, died after being bitten by snake, believed to be a timber rattler, on his property in West Virginia, the New York Daily News reports.
Eighty-year-old William “Marty” Martin started studying the habits and habitats of rattlesnakes at a young age. As a 13-year-old, he became one of the first people to document the existence of timber rattlers in Bull Run Mountains in Virginia.
As he grew, he started to advocate against policies that endangered rattlesnakes, particularly in the Western United States, where their populations were dropping as developments expanded into their natural habitats.