A rattlesnake in California.
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A Southern California woman has died after a rattlesnake bite, marking the second fatal snake bite in the state since the start of the year.
Emergency responders were dispatched to a trail in the Wildwood Regional Park area of Thousand Oaks for a “remote rescue” shortly before noon March 14, after reports that a female hiker had been bitten by a rattlesnake.
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Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson Andrew Dowd told SFGATE by phone that firefighters and paramedics responded by ground and air, deploying a helicopter through a joint sheriff-fire air unit while additional crews hiked into the trail to reach the hiker. Once they reached her, crews administered medical care before she was evacuated from the scene and flown to a nearby hospital.
Moorpark resident Gabriela Bautista, 46, died five days later on March 19, James Baroni, a senior medical examiner with the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office, confirmed to SFGATE by phone. Her cause of death was listed as “rattlesnake venom toxicity” and the manner was ruled an accident.
Fatal snake bites are incredibly rare in the U.S., with about five deaths reported annually.
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There has been more rattlesnake bite activity than normal in Southern California, according to authorities.
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The steep trail that leads to Paradise Falls in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Ventura County has responded to four rattlesnake bite calls since March 14, Dowd said, including one involving a teenage girl on a trail near the Wendy Drive trailhead in Newbury Park.
In 2025, the agency handled nine reported rattlesnake bite incidents in total, with the first occurring in February and the last being reported on Oct. 6, Dowd said. In March a 25-year-old man died weeks after being bitten by a rattlesnake while mountain biking in Irvine.
Dowd declined to characterize the recent cases as a surge, noting that responders could “very easily” go months without being dispatched to another rattlesnake bite.
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Nick Ferrari, a ranger with the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency, told SFGATE by phone that serious rattlesnake bite incidents are usually uncommon in the region.
“It’s incredibly rare, to be honest,” Ferrari said, adding that in 10 years as a ranger he’s never “had a call with fire dispatch due to a rattlesnake bite.”
Rattlesnakes are more frequently seen as temperatures rise in spring and summer, Ferrari explained. Sightings tend to increase during cooler parts of the day, such as midmorning or late afternoon.
“[Rattlesnakes] are pretty docile, unless you mess with them,” Ferrari noted. “If they feel threatened, that’s when they would strike.”
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The Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency manages roughly 17,000 acres of open space in Thousand Oaks, including Wildwood Regional Park, where Bautista was bitten. Ferrari said park rangers occasionally relocate snakes that wander into restrooms or near playgrounds, but most of the snakes remain off-trail and avoid people.
“This is the time of year when there is the potential for these interactions between animals and people in the outdoor space,” Dowd said, noting that the recent death is a “grim but important reminder” about trail safety.
Dowd urged hikers to take basic precautions, including carrying a fully charged phone and spare battery, wearing boots or long pants, staying on marked trails, avoiding tall grass and looking carefully before stepping over logs or rocks. If bitten, he said to remain calm and call 911, and warned against outdated first-aid methods, including sucking the venom out of the wound.
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