Remembering Scops and Betty
by Emily Hutto

It is with a sorrowful heart that we share that two of our beloved wildlife ambassadors, Beethoven “Betty” the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) and Scops the Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio) have passed away in the past few months.

Betty was a presumed-female Timber Rattlesnake, the most common species of rattlesnake in Alabama. She had been with Ruffner for 26 years, since 1997. She was approximately 5-6 years old when she was acquired, making her approximately 30-32 years old. We liked to say she was our longest-term employee since she had been here longer than any current or former employee of Ruffner! Timber Rattlesnakes typically live 15-20 years, but some specimens have been reported to reach 30-35 years of age in captivity if they receive excellent care. Betty passed away from a suspected old-age-related stroke in February 2023.

Scops was a female gray-phase Eastern Screech-Owl, the smallest species of owl in Alabama.  She had been with Ruffner for 4 years and was presumed to be 6-7 years old at the time of her passing. In captivity, Eastern Screech Owls typically live to be 8-10 years old, and potentially up to 13 with excellent care. However, Scops was born with a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which means that her heart muscles were too thick, and her heart had to work harder than a normal heart to pump blood to her body. She passed away from a suspected heart attack resulting from this disease in November 2022.

Both Betty and Scops were excellent ambassadors and teachers. They each met thousands of visitors from around the globe, and inspired passion for wildlife and the natural world in all whom they met. 

Betty was always the star of the show in the Nature Center – due to her impressive size and venomous status, everyone who saw her wanted to learn more about her. Betty was an invaluable model of snake identification and a teacher of venomous snake safety. She allowed thousands of people to have a safe up-close encounter with a venomous rattlesnake, teaching them how to identify her species and what to do if they see a rattlesnake in the wild (safely walk the other way and do not engage with the snake). She taught countless people that venomous snakes should be respected, but they do not need to be feared.

Scops was well-loved by all who met her. She may have only been 6” tall, but she made an eagle-sized impact on the world. She was the definition of small but mighty. She taught countless visitors about small owl species, what kinds of owls live in Alabama, what their calls sound like, and why and how we should conserve her species and the natural world. She inspired passion and interest in biology, environmental education, conservation, birding, and the great outdoors in an immeasurable number of people.

Betty and Scops were invaluable and irreplaceable members of our team here at Ruffner. They will be sorely missed and their footprint on this world will not be forgotten. They will forever be memorialized in the hearts of all who worked with them, cared for them, trained them, and learned from them. If you were inspired by Scops or Betty, we would love to hear your story.  You can email emily@ruffnermountain.org if you feel inspired to share how they made an impact on your life. Their spirits will forever remain on our mountain, watching over us and continuing to inspire environmentalists for generations to come.