A hiker was killed from a rare but venomous rattlesnake bite after he made the mistake of picking up the reptile.

The unidentified male hiker, who was in Tennessee’s Savage Gulf State Park on Aug. 8, picked up what was likely a Timber rattlesnake, which has “venom potent enough to kill a human,” but whose “bites are rare,” according to the National Zoo .

“According to witnesses, the hiker had picked the Rattlesnake up resulting in a bite to his hand,” Matthew Griffith of the Grundy County Emergency Management Agency said in a statement to Fox News Digital .

Timber rattlesnake bites are rare, according to the National Zoo. Getty Images

The hike was believed to have suffered an allergic reaction, although his actual cause of death has not been made public, Griffith said.

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