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Important Safety Message For Field Researchers: Rattlesnakes Losing Their Ability To Rattle

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Guest DWA

Guest DWA

Posted
Posted

Yep, I first read about this years ago.

 

Evolution says this will happen.  Random mutations sometimes get selected for; there's an obvious reason this one would.

 

Serves us right, killing something that's only telling us not to step on it.  Just take the dam advice.  It's worked for me.

Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted (edited)

I grew up in snake country...desert SW and of the many, many times I stumbled on a rattlesnake I got a warning rattle only once or twice...it takes a bit of vibration to set them off...and we had a saying...when hiking together, pretty morbid actually... the first is safe, the second wakens it, the thrid gets bit...

 

but, I popped in to mention Dr. Sykes article..on the mutation rate in the male Y chromosome..he also predicts a loss of ability to procreate for men in some distant future.....  !    I hope along with that goes the libido...that would be a mess!

 

thanks for posting this...

 

well, haha I thought I lived in snake country till Imoved here, on banks of Sacramento river..we have killed 35 rattlesnakes in three season in the yard! A big yard..a few acres..but still! Both dogs were bit..and $1500 later survived...they were young..hoping they learned... the "rip rap" people used in old days (concrete trash really) to shore up the banks harbors rodents and the snakes follow...b/c undergound the concrete keeps the burronw strong i suppose.... this year was better we have only killed a half dozen and one got away.

 

We watched a king snake emerge from a hole, go down another and emerge from yet another hole, chasing a ribbon snake that it killed and ate...writhing together...really "planet earth" type scene.......that was a trip

 

I hate snakes!

Edited by apehuman
Guest JiggyPotamus

Guest JiggyPotamus

Posted
Posted

That is good to know. Rattlesnakes are found here in Texas, but the closest I've ever seen around here was about an hour or two away. Honestly though that is not far for a snake population. Copperheads on the other hand are rampant on our property. We kill many of them every year. In fact, one night, in the span of about an hour, we killed 14 of them in a relatively small area. They were coming in for water in a fountain/pond. It was insane. 

 

But out of all the venomous snakes out there, if I had to have any around I would want them to be copperheads. I say this because I have never known them to be aggressive, and every single time I have seen one strike has been when severely provoked. Most of the time they will attempt to escape danger. About the only time I think they would bite is if they were stepped on, which is easy to do when they're lying in the leaves or something. I hate cottonmouths with a passion, and I have seen them be quite aggressive. We don't have them near the house very much at all, but further back on our property we get them near our pond and creek. I've heard they will actually go on the offensive with humans, but I've never witnessed this to be honest.

 

So being inexperienced with rattlesnakes, I would suspect that the rattling sound is a great warning to humans. If rattlesnakes are apt to strike when someone gets close, I could see how this would be a problem. But if they don't, walking past them without hearing them rattle might not be that bad. But every scenario is different I suppose, and it is always dangerous to walk up on a venomous snake without seeing it. 

 

I am somewhat afraid of snakes in general, but my fear is more of respect in a way. If I see one out in the woods, there is that automatic anxiety or fear response, of some sort. That trademark slithering through the brush is unmistakable, and I hate when that happens. It doesn't matter what type of snake, venomous or not. And often I get spooked by those stupid toads or frogs, the greyish brownish green ones that are about the size of a fist. Sometimes lizards even scare me at first, when they move sort of like a snake. We used to have a king snake around here, and during that time we didn't have many snake problems, but apparently he decided to leave, or maybe he died. Once I got scared when I walked up to an open shed, and there was a large snake that had apparently climbed up, to head level, and wrapped itself around a post. It was scary mainly because I looked to my side, and there was a snake in my face. I am not sure what kind it was, although I am certain it wasn't venomous. Probably a chicken snake, as we had chickens over there.

Midnight Owl Bukwas

Midnight Owl

Posted
Posted

Good heads up advice for sure!

  • 2 weeks later...
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Even though I've spent most of my life in South Central Texas, I have visually encountered very few rattlesnakes. We have heard them when bird hunting down South, but they tend to stay well concealed.

 

Cottonmouths, on the other hand, I have extensive experience with. My family farms rice in South Louisiana. I have no rational explanation for how aggressive some of those snakes are in the peak of the Summer. Large Cottonmouths are well known to occasionally actually chase people, dogs, whatever when they feel particularly provoked.

Drew Bigfoot

Drew

Posted
Posted

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=216924322

 

 

There has been a rumor about this floating around for some time, but it has been confirmed in South Dakota at least.

 

Fair warning folks.  Watch where you walk and put your hands.

 

It hasn't been confirmed anywhere but on a few islands in the Baja Peninsula of Mexico.

Most rattlesnakes take a lot of provoking to even get it to rattle.

I have not seen any study showing that rattlesnakes of mainland North America are losing the ability to rattle however.

 

How would we know if there always weren't a portion of rattlers that didn't rattle?  Those are the ones that are hard to find, so we wouldn't see very many of them.   One person says they are seeing more of them, but maybe they are just getting better at looking for them.

 

Another side note, you can't be for conservation, and wantonly kill rattlesnakes.  They are an integral part of species diversity, for every rattlesnake you kill, you should make a donation to this conservation group.

http://www.oriannesociety.org/

 

 

Snakes have value. When you find one in the wild, it's like finding a rare gem. Whether you outright fear them, or simply respect them, they never fail to inspire, or awe.

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But snakes are in a world of danger. In a world of diminishing habitats, they suffer from the same effects of environmental degradation as other animals, but with the added burden of being targets. Targets of persecution. Of antipathy.

And what's surprising is that, when it comes to saving endangered species, snakes and reptiles are often overlooked. They don't get the same attention as cuter animals we're asked to save. Yet healthy ecosystems depend on these animals. Reptiles and amphibians are often the bellwethers of habitat health. To see a snake in the wild is to see a forest on the mend.

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When you save a snake in the wild, you save the ecosystem in which it lives. When you save an Eastern Indigo, you save a longleaf pine forest. When you save a Bushmaster in Central America, you save a virgin rainforest. When you care for the least among the animals in the wild, you care for all the animals.

So, why does it matter? Because snakes have value. Their physiology holds many clues to important medical advances. Their presence in the forest brings balance to an ecosystem. Their mystique has played important roles in our arts and culture. They're key players in the world we live in.

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A snake is worth protecting, because a world without snakes would be a world out of balance.

And a pretty boring place, at that.

 

Guest zenmonkey

Guest zenmonkey

Posted
Posted

Yep, I first read about this years ago.

 

Evolution says this will happen.  Random mutations sometimes get selected for; there's an obvious reason this one would.

 

Serves us right, killing something that's only telling us not to step on it.  Just take the dam advice.  It's worked for me.

yup read about that in school the mutation has finally caught up keep an eye out folks!

Drew Bigfoot

Drew

Posted
Posted

there's no evidence that rattlesnakes striking without warning constitutes a "recent phenomenon."

 

Fact it, some rattlers rattle more, some rattle less.  If you have a population of rattlers on one area, and the ones that rattle more are killed off, then of course the ones left in the area are going to be the ones that rattle less.  If that is the case, then most bites in that area are going to be from Rattlers that rattle less.  There is no evidence that rattles are disappearing.

 

The one place where rattles have disappeared is on off the coast of the Baja Peninsula.

This change has taken place since the populations on the island, and the populations on the mainland were split

Drew Bigfoot

Drew

Posted
Posted

The time frame of the populations being split is far far longer than the time frame of humans arriving and killing off the snakes that rattle.

Evolution is fast, but not that fast.

Guest Rex

Guest Rex

Posted
Posted (edited)

^^^^

 

 

I have been an avid herper since I was around 5 years old.

 

I have captured snakes of all kinds from one side of this country to the other and in many other countries as well.

 

From the "article?":

 


 

Analysis: According to various anecdotal reports including the one above, the behavior of rattlesnakes has changed in recent years such that the venomous critters have begun striking at people without the customary aural "warning" — namely sounding the tiny rattle consisting of dry, molted scales in the tip of their tail.

 

 

 Well lets just discuss "anecdotal reports".. seems as though there is much consternation about those in several other threads here.

 

The last rattler I caught was an eastern diamondback that was roughly 5 feet long... she rattled like hell.

 

Every other EDB i have come across here has as well. Pygmies do as much as they can but have such small rattles even dew will quiet them.

 

A rattler will decide to rattle or not depending on how nervous they are..  the nervous shaking is what causes the rattle to make the noise.

 

Also i have heard the crap about "cottonmouths chasing" down anything with vicious abandon just to get a bite at it.

 

BULL.

 

I have dealt with more cottonmouths than I can shake a rattler at. At all times they were fairly docile and it takes a lot of badgering to get one to strike and mean it!

 

The whole "chased me down. they are mean" line is a load of bull that has clearly been spit out by someone who never dealt with one of these snakes.

 

Wives tales do more damage than the snakes do.

 

Rattlers are not "losing" their ability to "rattle".. people are losing their ability to reason.

 

 

 

Since i seem to have missed it, can someone here count the number of times that snake tried to bite him???

 

 

 

Once again..

 

There are other vids showing just how much pushing and prodding it takes to get a cottonmouth to actually bite.

 

Enough with the nonsense.

Edited by Rex
Drew Bigfoot

Drew

Posted
Posted

Thanks Rex. 

 

Too many non-herpers get there snake info from Turtle-Moron.

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