Plants may be rich in wildlife, but employees should enjoy with caution

A pair of rattlesnakes warn off what they perceive as predators. Snakes like these are a common sight at Pantex, where the availability of prey and warm facilities prove inviting.

An employee replacing a Pantex air-handling unit in the ceiling felt something fall out of the ductwork onto his shoulder. Focused on his work, he brushed off the offending object…only to glance down and realize he’d just swiped away a garter snake.

Thankfully, the creature was nonvenomous, and no employees were harmed. However, that doesn’t change the fact that at Pantex, the potential to encounter wildlife—including some creatures that are potentially hazardous to humans—is an everyday reality.

At Pantex, rattlesnakes are the proverbial king of wildlife encounters, with 22 calls in 2023. Along with many other reports, an additional 38 calls reported various other species of snakes, and another 19 calls reported skunks.

“Sometimes, we’ll catch other things when trying to catch a skunk,” explained Environmental Safety & Health Generalist Katie P. “We have gotten some feral cats before. When we get cats in, we take them to the City of Amarillo, and they put them in their barn cat program, where they can be adopted by a farmer and live out a happy life chasing mice and such as that.”

The site is also seeing a boom in other wildlife populations.

“We are starting to see more deer, more pronghorn, more coyotes,” explained Pantex Wildlife Biologist Kevin B.

He cautioned employees against feeding or creating any condition that might invite a wild animal to enter an area where they should not be. The outcome, he warned, could not only create a hazard for employees but also prove tragic for the animal itself.

“They are not your pet dog,” Kevin said. “You are not helping the animal; in fact, you are hurting the animal because they are more likely to come in … and we have to deal with that.”

Pantex employees who see dangerous wildlife or wildlife acting strangely should call the site’s Operations Center. Their first duty, though, is to ensure their own safety and the safety of those around them.

“If you run across a predator-type animal and it’s acting aggressively,” Kevin said, “don’t try to approach it, but still keep an eye on it until one of our team gets there.”

A pair of mule deer cross a Pantex road that divides grazing areas.