Despite persistent cool mornings and alternating sunny and cloudy days, nine of eleven telemetered rattlesnakes have left their winter shelters and the remaining two have been basking regularly and will undoubtedly be on the move soon. We have also been finding plenty of new rattlesnakes basking and now have 27 animals processed and marked with colored paint in the rattles, in addition to the eleven with radios.
As I have already described, Female 41 was one of the first to leave her hibernation site and was soon joined by Male 49, a snake marked last season but not telemetered. Male 49 and Female 41 remained in close proximity at the same location from 16 February until 20 March and, although they were occasionally coiled in contact with one another, I never saw the male courting her. Male 49 followed when Female 41 moved more than 50 meters between 20 and 24 March but there has still been no witnessed courtship. However, the grass is very thick at their new location, making her hard to see and him impossible to spot if he’s not with her (and I don’t want to step on him… they’re very fragile!).
On 22 March, I came across Female 55, another animal processed last year and released without a transmitter, basking alone at the edge of a large log. But when I returned on 24 March, she had company: an unmarked (no paint in the rattle) male on top of her, jerking, chin-rubbing, and tongue-flicking – typical courtship behavior (you can view a 2015 clip of Female 41 with another male here).
Female 55 basking alone in the afternoon sun on 22 March 2016. Note her rattle with red over yellow paint, visible through the grass on the left side of the photo. Without a radio, she had not been seen since June of last year.
Then two days later, on 24 March, Female 55 is almost completely hidden by a new male on top of her; you can see his unmarked rattle in the middle foreground of the photo. Although the male is distracted by me in this picture, he had been vigorously courting the female just moments before. Unfortunately, the video camera auto-focused on the grass, making the resulting image unusable. Courtship continued at this location for at least three days but they were gone on 29 March, replaced by Male 35, who was enjoying the sun by himself yesterday afternoon. Although he would retreat under the log when I approached closely, he would re-emerge within minutes as soon as I backed away.
We can expect the females to hunt for the next two-to-three months, after which pregnant females will retreat to their favorite gestation shelters to thermoregulate until their kids are born around the first of September. Non-pregnant females will continue to hunt through the summer. Males will spend most of their time looking for receptive females until late May/early June, after which they, too, will hunt full-time for voles and ground squirrel pups until courtship resumes in late summer.
After a couple of false starts during warm periods in mid and late February, a new series of cool storms kept the Effie Yeaw Nature Center rattlesnakes immobile through the first half of March. On days with a little sunshine, both telemetered and other rattlesnakes were frequently found basking at the entrance to their shelters but they did not venture away from them. Natural selection tends to remove animals from the gene pool that wander too early and get caught in a late-season freeze. As if to demonstrate that it was cool temperature and not the rain that was keeping them inactive, several rattlesnakes were found lying out in the rain on days when the temperature was in the high 60s, despite the clouds.
Male 49 lying in the rain on 4 March 2016. Rattlesnakes are very adept at harvesting rain and dew, being able to suck individual droplets off of vegetation and their own bodies. While they will drink from standing water when available, they don’t seem to need such water sources and we have not detected them traveling to either the ponds near the Visitor Center or to the river. The only rattlesnakes discovered over the past two seasons around the Visitor Center (and its water sources) have been males during the breeding season – presumably looking for females, not water.
While the rattlesnakes continued to bask on sunny days, none of the telemetered animals moved between 29 February and 17 March. Then today, I discovered that 7 of the 9 telemetered rattlesnakes had left their shelters and moved significant distances in the past two days.
I haven’t seen courtship yet. Female 41 and Male 49 hung out together for a month (16 February through 15 March) but they were only rarely touching one another and were usually coiled a couple of feet apart with no courtship observed. She is now hunting several dozen yards away and Male 49, without a transmitter, has disappeared.
The important message, however, is that rattlesnakes are on the move and encounters between people and rattlesnakes will increase immediately. Unfortunately, I have already seen photos of a rattlesnake bite from a few days ago in the foothills. Watching carefully where you put your hands and unprotected feet and leaving snakes alone when you encounter them would prevent almost all bites. If you must walk in vegetation or rocks where you cannot be sure what you’re stepping on, wear high-top shoes or boots that cover your feet and ankles. Of course, boots that cover some of your calf are better but most accidental snakebites (where the person is not intentionally interacting with the snake) are to the ankle and below.
Remember, you can’t save all the cute animals, eat all the tasty ones, kill all the ones that scare you, and have a functional ecosystem, too!
After some limited basking by a couple of telemetered rattlesnakes and short movements by Female 41 and Male 49 two weeks ago, the return of cool cloudy weather sent these animals underground again. Then, despite several days of sunny weather last week, the rattlesnakes remained cool and out of sight – with the exception of Male 49. While Female 41 stayed underground and cold, he napped most afternoons in the sun just a couple feet away.
But yesterday, everything changed. Males 37 and 38 who spent the winter near the top of the bluff had moved down; one was out of sight under a log and the other was in an ambush coil in the grass under a small fig tree.
My first look at Male 38 this year. He appeared to be hunting at the base of the bluff, just a few dozen yards from where he spent the winter on the hillside.
A rapidly pulsing transmitter told me before I arrived that my underweight geriatric Male 40 had survived another winter and was in the sun at his winter shelter.
My old friend, Male 40, made it through another winter. Over two seasons, he has moved very little and I have never found him courting a female. This is my first look at him this year. He had a body temperature of 88F when this photo was taken. Although he may have had more surface area exposed to the sun before I arrived, it takes very little exposed skin to dramatically raise their body temperature on a sunny windless day.Male 49 (foreground, no transmitter) and telemetered Female 41 (background). Female 41 was underground with a body temperature of 52F on Sunday but had a body temp of 86F when this photo was taken yesterday (24 hours later).
Female 41 was in the sun with Male 49 laying partly on top of her, although I saw no active courtship during my brief visit.
Other telemetered snakes had moved short distances but were out of sight when I was there yesterday. But in my travels, I also sighted five unmarked rattlesnakes basking, including a beautiful little female sporting a food bolus about the size of a vole – so she has already fed successfully.
So for the next three months or so, females will be trying to eat as much as they can to nourish their next brood while males will be wandering all over the place (and hunting less) in search of receptive females. It is during this time that male rattlesnakes tend to turn up in yards and on trails, producing interactions with people.
Remember that rattlesnakes want nothing to do with something the size of a person. Leave them alone and they will be happy to avoid you, too!
As sunny 70+ degree days have been warming the ground recently, body temperatures of the telemetered rattlesnakes have been creeping up… but only from the 50-60F range into the higher 60s. Then, yesterday, I found Female 41 laying in the grass next to the log where she has spent the past two winters. But just being visible doesn’t constitute emergence.
I returned late this morning and found Female 39 visible for the first time, basking in dappled sun under the end of the log where she has spent the past two winters.
This was all that was visible of Female 39 this morning but it takes only a small surface area in the sun to act as a radiator and warm the entire snake.
Then, not only did I find that Female 41 had moved about 20 feet from her winter shelter to a smaller nearby log, but I watched as Male 49, a large non-telemetered animal with white/green paint in his rattle, arrived at the same log and joined her. Although they coiled next to each other, I saw no actual courtship behavior during the 45 minutes I watched.
Male 49, just a few feet from joining Female 41 this morning. Without a transmitter, I have no way of determining his body temperature or knowing where he spent the winter. An encounter with him is purely chance but white/green paint in his rattle makes him easily recognizable.
Body temperatures of Males 37 and 38, both of which spent the winter high on the bluff north of the preserve, were around 90F at midday today. Because their winter locations are almost inaccessible, I don’t know if they have actually left their hibernacula but they were both definitely in the sun today. Remember that ground temperature is much higher in the sun than the air temperature, particularly on south-facing slopes.
As of today, the other five telemetered rattlesnakes remain relatively cool and out of sight and the weather forecast looks like cloudy skies, cooler temps, and more rain over the next few days.
The study animals did not begin to leave their winter shelters until the end of the first week in March last year. Although this is three weeks earlier than last year, it is certainly a limited emergence with many snakes remaining underground and inactive. But the fact remains that some rattlesnakes have left their winter shelters, so “rattlesnake season” is definitely underway.
Remember that being careful where you place your unprotected hands and feet and leaving snakes alone when you find them would prevent almost all rattlesnake bites!
At the conclusion of my last post (29 October), I mentioned that it appeared that all of the rattlesnakes had settled into their winter shelters and, indeed, two days later, they had done so. Of the six telemetered rattlesnakes for which I have refuge locations from last winter, five of them returned to the same refuge this winter. The exception is Male 38, who spent last winter under a log in the flat floodplain but this winter is high on the hillside near the northern preserve boundary. On 31 October, I climbed the bluff and found Male 38’s location just a few meters away from Male 37, who had returned to his 2014/2015 location. Both animals’ radio signals were originating from under thick vegetation covered by wild grape vines high on the steep hillside. Both are undoubtedly underground, likely in ground squirrel burrows.
Of the eight telemetered rattlesnakes this winter, three are hibernating together in one refuge, two are together in another, and three are hibernating alone in different locations (including Males 37 and 38). Of course, there may be non-telemetered rattlesnakes with any or all of them but that’s hard to determine at this stage. I will do some burrow camera work soon but that is often inconclusive, as their shelters are often too deep or have too many sharp turns for the camera. Even if I reach them, I cannot visually identify the snakes without looking for paint in their rattles, which are usually covered by their coils. In warm weather I often poke them with the camera to get them to expose their rattles but I don’t want to disturb them when they are cold.
So how cold are they? The table below shows the ground surface temperature in sun and shade, as well as the coldest, warmest, and average body temperatures of the telemetered rattlesnakes over the last five weeks of 2015. I will continue to occasionally collect temperature data until spring emergence. That will be foretold by the snakes beginning to bask in the morning sun, probably sometime in March. Even if I don’t catch them basking, they won’t be able to hide their elevated body temperatures; then we’ll know they’re about to begin their 2016 season.
Brumation vs. hibernation
Several people have asked me about the term “brumation” and the difference between brumation and hibernation. According to Harvey Lillywhite’s Dictionary of Herpetology (2008, Krieger Publishing, Malabar, FL), brumation is:
“A condition of torpor during extended periods of low temperature (winter dormancy), intended to distinguish such states of inactivity of amphibians and reptiles from the term ‘hibernation’ that is used commonly in reference to birds and mammals. Term coined by W. Mayhew (Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 16:103–119, 1965)”
When used regarding endotherms (animals that regulate their body temperature internally, like birds and mammals), “hibernation” generally describes a state of deep sleep in which an animal lowers its body temperature and metabolism to conserve stored nutrients during harsh winters, such as many bears and bats. In reality, ectotherms like rattlesnakes do essentially the same thing with two exceptions: they remain responsive and do not “sleep” although they become very sluggish as they get cold and, after all, it is not a big physiological change for ectotherms because their body temperature varies with the environment year-round. As a result, many herpetologists ignore brumation and use hibernation to describe winter inactivity in reptiles and amphibians, too (e.g., F. Harvey Pough, et al. 2016. Herpetology, 4th ed., Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA).
Our wayward male shed on the morning of 7 October, five days after being recaptured. His faulty transmitter was surgically replaced that afternoon and he was released the following morning.
Male 37 recovering from anesthesia on a heated pad after his transmitter surgery on 7 October. He now measures 969 mm (just over 38″) total length, making him the largest rattlesnake I have measured at Effie Yeaw. Besides shedding four times in the past 16 months, his body mass has increased 26% (now 668 g or 1.5 lbs.), while his length increased by almost 5%. This is a very healthy rattlesnake!Male 37 on the morning of 8 October, disappearing into the hollow log where he was captured. Note that I marked his rattle again, since his original paint is only two segments away from being lost.
I took advantage of the necessity to allow Male 37 to shed before his surgery to collect some useful data. His pre-shed body mass was 693.5 g. By weighing him again and subtracting his post-shed mass of 668.4 g, we find that he lost 25.1 g (0.9 oz.), which was 3.6% of his body mass. Then, by drying his shed “skin” on a hot plate to drive off ambient moisture and subtracting that mass (5.1 g) from 25.1g, we can calculate that 80% of the mass he lost was water. Although these rattlesnakes are unaffected by California’s drought so far (more details here and here), that will eventually change and such data will be invaluable for calculating water loss and gain over time (water “flux”) and predicting when the snakes will become water stressed.
More Mortality
Another healthy postpartum female, CROR 47, was killed on the morning of 21 September. I may have been premature in assuming that a coyote killed Female 54 on 14 September (details). Female 47 was also very fresh when I found her, killed in the early morning in the meadow by something that did not eat her.
Death scene: Female 47 in the meadow at Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve on the morning of 21 September. The posterior end of her abdomen was laying a few feet away. The edge of the bright red transmitter can be seen in the grass near the middle of the photo. Clearly, the carnivorous yellow jacket wasps found her quickly.
It was obvious that Female 47 had been pulled apart, with her body in two large pieces and internal organs and strips of skin pulled away. But she was all there. Maybe most interesting was the condition of her head: The top of her head was intact and unmarked but her lower jaw was mostly gone and the roof of her mouth was mangled, especially where the fangs had been (caution: graphic close-up).
In reconsidering the death of Female 54 a week before, I assumed that her missing head and neck had been eaten but it is entirely possible that I just didn’t find them. And I rationalized that a coyote dropped the snake as it probably fled (unseen) from me. But I see coyotes around the meadow frequently and, while they give people a wide birth, they are not panicked by our presence. If I interrupted a coyote with Female 54, why wouldn’t it have carried the rattlesnake away to finish the meal?
So what would encounter both rattlesnakes in the meadow early in the morning and pull them apart before leaving them uneaten? I have had coyotes kill Mohave rattlesnakes in southern California in the past but they eat the entire snake and chew the transmitters; these transmitters were undamaged. And what would remove the jaw and mangle the inside of the mouth?
My best idea is turkeys. Interestingly, I have found nothing in the scientific literature about wild turkeys killing adult rattlesnakes, although there are several anecdotal accounts in books, including Laurence Klauber’s Rattlesnakes (1972, Univ. California Press) of turkeys mobbing adult rattlers. Inquiries of my rattlesnake researcher colleagues has produced one witnessed account of a wild turkey killing and eating a two-foot timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) in Minnesota. And there is a video on YouTube of two turkeys apparently killing what appears to be a large gopher snake (Pituophis) on a golf course.
If anyone reading this has first-hand information about wild turkeys interacting with rattlesnakes, I would love to hear about it.
2015 Season almost over?
Well, it’s the last week in October and our eight telemetered rattlesnakes appear to be mostly settled into their winter shelters, despite relatively warm weather. Last year, we still had three telemetered rattlesnakes roaming around well into November (see my “Rattlesnake Update” from 26 November 2014).
This year, one of our telemetered animals has been stationary since 16 September and others have stopped moving since 6 October, 12 October (2 animals), and potentially three more in just the past couple of days. Most interesting of all is that five of them are in the same shelters they used last year – and a sixth may be on his way. This is a departure from behavior observed during my field work in El Dorado County, where the rattlesnakes did not return to the same locations winter-after-winter, although some returned to previously used sites after spending a winter or two in other locations.
This year at Effie Yeaw, our skinny geriatric Male 40 went immobile on 16 September under the same log he shared with Males 35 and 38 and Female 39 last winter. Then Male 35 and Female 39 joined him, arriving on 6 October and 12 October, respectively – although their radio signals indicate that they are not together under the large log. Male 38 is still on the move, even visiting the residents along Edgehill Lane three days ago (26 October). I was unable to gain access to his location due to the necessary residents apparently being away and, when I returned yesterday, I found that he had returned to the hillside within the nature preserve. Male 37 spent a few days in the same area on Edgehill Lane in August 2014 and also returned to the preserve before I could gain access to him. These are the only two times (in two full seasons) that telemetered animals have entered the residential area on the bluff. When this occurs, I try to contact the property owners and would remove the snake, if that’s the property owner’s desire and the snake is accessible. In both cases, however, the rattlesnakes returned to the preserve before I could make contact with the necessary residents. But back to Male 38, he was on the hillside yesterday morning and may be headed back to last year’s log with the others.
Male 37 went directly to the hillside after I released him with a new transmitter on 8 October and I have not detected a change in the location of his radio signal since 12 October – which sounds like the same place he spent last winter (again, refer to my “Rattlesnake Update” from 26 November 2014). Once I’m sure he’s down for the winter, I’ll make the treacherous climb and verify his exact location.
Female 41 arrived on 20 October at the log where she spent last winter. She moved a few meters away over a couple of days but has been back for the past three days, so she may also be done for this season. As far as I could determine last winter, she was alone. Male 46 and Female 53, neither of which were telemetered last winter (i.e., I don’t know where they spent last winter), are very close together under another large log and have been there for at least three days.
It is interesting to note that the rattlesnakes that are already in their winter shelters are not basking, preferring to remain out of sight with body temperatures mostly in the 60–65F range. Earlier in the activity season, when cool nights are followed by warm morning sun, the rattlesnakes come out and warm up by exposing some or all of their skin area, depending on ambient temperature and the intensity of the solar radiation. But in ectotherms (animals that get their body heat from the environment) like rattlesnakes, body temperature varies with the environment and both metabolic rate and water flux increase with higher body temperature, burning more stored energy and using more water. So, on the verge of four or five months of hibernation, the rattlesnakes are likely programmed by evolution to cool off and slow their metabolism, thereby conserving energy and water for use in the spring.
Once I’m sure the snakes are done moving for the year, I’ll summarize the season’s findings in the context of last year’s data and our original questions and study goals.
After being on the lam since December when his transmitter failed prematurely during hibernation, Male 37 was discovered getting ready to shed in one of his favorite hollow logs last Friday and recaptured. As soon as he sheds in a few days, his transmitter will be replaced and he will be released. Note in the photos below that this will be his 4th shed in 16 months (4 new rattle segments behind the paint); his new live segment is still covered by thin scales that will be lost with this shed. He has also lost five old segments from the end. He will be on display at our Living with Rattlesnakes booth at EYNC’s Nature Fest tomorrow, October 4th.
CROR 37’s rattle on 3 October 2015.CROR 37’s rattle on 14 June 2014.
You may remember from my last post that pregnant Female 53 had made a surprising move of more than 220 yards near the end of August and was discovered, apparently by herself, in a small burrow at the edge of the river bottom. Interestingly, after monitoring her there for a week, she turned up back in the original refuge on 8 September. Although I have not been able to get a look at her with the BurrowCam, the burrow she was in for a week is empty and I have no reason to believe that she’s not still pregnant.
Then, last Thursday (September 10), I found three significant developments when I visited this same birthing refuge occupied by expecting Females 39, 47 and 53. First, Female 39 was gone, with a distant weak radio signal. Second, I finally got a direct look at some babies – either three of them or the same one three times, crawling around inside the refuge (photo below)! Interestingly, the one(s) I saw had shed; they were brightly marked and their little two-lobed rattle buttons were uncovered. That, of course, means that they were around 10–14 days old and ready to leave. And, third, one of the visible adults was jerking and chin-rubbing on Female 47 – sure signs of a courting male (click here for a courtship video). This guy had no paint in his rattle, so he’s new but he was inaccessible inside the shelter. But the fall portion of the courtship season has definitely begun.
A post-shed youngster crawling over an unidentified adult rattlesnake in its birth shelter on 10 September 2015.
Female 39 was already postpartum, so her departure was not surprising. But her offspring should have left (or be leaving) at the same time. The post-shed kid(s) I saw could have been her’s or Female 47’s. When I tracked down Female 39’s radio signal, she was in the blackberry thicket on the other side of San Lorenzo Way, laying in diffuse sunlight and sporting a very recent food bulge (just behind the U-shaped bend in her neck in the photo, below). Interestingly, this annually-reproducing female had her babies in the same refuge last year and, when she departed, she immediately made the same long move to the same spot in the same berry thicket – on 15 September 2014. Apparently this is the best place to find a good meal when you finally get the kids out of the house!
Recently postpartum female Female 39 with recent food bolus, basking on 10 September 2015.
As of the morning of 14 September, all females except 53 had left their gestation shelters. I came across Female 47 crawling in the grass, so I maneuvered in front of her and shot some video as she crawled toward me. Although I remained motionless, I think she detected me as she got within two or three feet, because she started carrying a slight “S” bend in her neck, which I interpret as a defensive precaution in case she needed to strike and bite (when not feeling threatened, they usually extend the neck when crawling, as in the first half of the video). I was accidentally kneeling almost on top of a ground squirrel burrow and she dove into it when she found it. Click here to see the 28-second video.
A short time later, I found that Female 54 had also departed from her gestation refuge but had made it only a few dozen meters. Her partly eaten carcass was laying in the edge of a trail just a few feet from where an adult turkey had been killed and eaten a couple of weeks ago. Her blood had not yet coagulated and the exposed tissue was still moist and glistening. In recent weeks, I’ve frequently seen one or two of the now almost grown coyote pups in this area and there has been coyote scat everywhere. I have no doubt that one of them got her.
Female 54, partly eaten on the morning of 14 September. I suspect a coyote was having her for breakfast when I approached and interrupted his meal.
Then, at the shelter used for the past couple of months by Females 39, 47 and 53 – and still occupied by 53, I came across a freshly shed youngster a couple of feet outside of his birth refuge.
A two-week-old rattlesnake, less than a foot long, that had just emerged from his birth refuge. He (or she) was contemplating the big unknown and dangerous world for the first time.
Assuming that Female 53 delivers a brood soon, our six monitored females will probably have contributed nearly 50 baby rattlesnakes to Effie Yeaw’s Nature Preserve (average litter size is 8). But remember that, on average over time in a stable population, a female rattlesnake (or any other species) only produces a replacement for herself and a mate in her lifetime that survive to reproduce themselves. Otherwise, the population increases or decreases.
Captured by a time-lapse camera, this kingsnake was checking out a gestation refuge occupied by two pregnant rattlesnakes in September 2011, during my El Dorado Hills study. Both females gave birth within the following week. Baby rattlesnakes are just hors d’oeuvres for kingsnakes, which probably know very well where the rattlesnakes give birth and they may well eat a large percentage of newborn rattlesnakes.
The vast majority of offspring never live long enough to pass on their genes. Of course, there are cycles between predator and prey species. When predator numbers are up, they soon knock the prey population down, which eventually results in a reduction of predators as food becomes scarce. Then, as predator numbers decline, the prey population begins to increase again… and the saga continues. Remember what I’ve said before: it’s a violent world out there and Nature is a cruel mother; most wild creatures’ lives end in the jaws of another!
Just when you think you are beginning to understand rattlesnake behavior, they do something completely unexpected. But, of course, that’s exactly why we study them!
Compared to my previous observations of Northern Pacific Rattlesnakes, this year’s mothers and neonates are behaving very differently. For starters, during multiple seasons at my El Dorado Hills study site and last year at Effie Yeaw NC, newborn rattlesnakes basked in the entrance to their birth shelter, usually in the morning, with mom laying just behind them. With a stealthy approach, they were not difficult to photograph.
Six-day-old babies basking at their El Dorado Hills birth site in September 2011. Mom is out of sight just behind them.Female 47 with a couple of her 2014 brood at Effie Yeaw Nature Center on 15 September last year.
As of yesterday (6 September), 5 of 6 monitored females had had their babies but I have yet to actually lay my eyes on a youngster. The only images of kids so far this year are from videos made underground with the BurrowCam. In one case, Female 54 has been so far into a void under a large log that even the four-foot probe of the BurrowCam just reveals empty tunnel as far as the light illuminates. Yet, yesterday morning, she was outside for the first time in weeks and clearly no longer pregnant (photo below). Her kids are nowhere to be seen.
Two weeks ago, the radio signal from our Female 53, who had been stationary with two other pregnant females for over a month, disappeared. After searching for her for several days, I finally caught a faint signal and followed it more than 200 m (220 yards) to a small burrow in the soil where the BurrowCam revealed that she was alive and still pregnant. As of yesterday, she was still there and still appeared pregnant (photo below). Such a long move so late in her pregnancy is quite unusual.
Finally, we also had a litter born in a holding bucket; a less than ideal situation but it provided an opportunity to collect some data not otherwise possible to get. Female 41’s transmitter was due for replacement early in July (transmitters function for about 12 months) but she had already gone into her gestation refuge and remained inaccessible ever since. I had resigned myself to her transmitter probably failing any day and having to search for her after she left her babies, along with Males 36 and 37 (who currently carry prematurely-failed transmitters). Then, last Monday, I was surprised to find her outside of her refuge, so I recaptured her. I don’t do transmitter surgeries during late-term pregnancy, plus it was apparent that she was likely to give birth very soon, so I planned to replace her transmitter as soon as she delivered her kids.
I didn’t have long to wait. She delivered nine healthy babies very early Friday morning (photo below). Her transmitter was replaced on Saturday and she, along with her brood, were released into her gestation refuge yesterday morning.
OK, you have to say, “Awww, aren’t they cute!” even if you’re not fond of rattlesnakes. This is Female 41 reunited with her kids after her transmitter surgery on Saturday. They were released together the next day and should remain together for another 10 days or so.
Here’s the interesting data that resulted from this captive birth: Subtracting mom’s body mass a few hours after birth from her body mass the day before revealed that she had lost 37% of her pre-parturition body weight. Average body mass of the kids was just under 14 g (about 1/2 ounce). Total body mass of her brood was 88% of her lost body mass, meaning that about 12% of her lost weight is attributed to amniotic membranes, fluid, etc. It is important to note that these live births are more akin to the egg-laying process than to mammalian births. That is, there is no placenta; the female rattlesnake secretes a yolk for each embryo that nourishes that embryo as it grows without further contribution from mom. Each embryo is contained in a thin transparent sac, rather than a thick egg shell (see the third photo in my Rattle Growth post from 14 July – click here). In addition to the embryo, the sac is filled with amniotic fluid and membranes enclosing what’s left of the yolk and the embryo’s waste.
The lesson from Female 41’s transmitter running out of time while she was not accessible is this: in the future, I will replace transmitters in females in May, regardless of the remaining battery life. For fifteen years, I have simply replaced transmitters at 12 months but Mohave Rattlesnakes in the desert were not reclusive during pregnancy and I just happened to have avoided summer anniversary dates for transmitters in females during my El Dorado Hills work.
So there it is… now you can amaze your friends with more than they ever wanted to know about rattlesnake reproduction!
Checking on our pregnant female rattlesnakes this morning disclosed another brood of kids in a different location. These appear younger than the ones discovered with Female 55 last night because their eyes are not yet cloudy white. Although only one was observed with the BurrowCam (see 19 second video), it is almost certain that there are more. Eight is the average litter size for Northern Pacific Rattlesnakes. However, these kids are also deep underground and, like those found last night, have only been observed with the BurrowCam.
Clearly, there will be baby rattlesnakes roaming around the American River Parkway within a few days, and some may have already shed and emerged from their mothers’ gestation shelters. Remember, the lack of snow pack and low reservoir levels have not affected the rodents and lizards along the American River, so the rattlesnakes are fat and healthy. Click here for more on how drought affects rattlesnake behavior.
Remember that, while venomous and dangerous, bites from baby rattlesnakes tend to be far less dangerous than bites by medium and large rattlesnakes. Clinical data comparing bites by rattlesnakes of different sizes clearly shows that big rattlers are more dangerous. Click here for a PDF of “Large snake size suggests increased snakebite severity in patients bitten by rattlesnakes in southern California” (2010, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine 21:120–126).
The idea that babies are more dangerous is likely the most common rattlesnake myth. Regardless of how much of their venom babies inject, adult rattlesnakes have a lot more venom, so are capable of much worse bites. Think about it: laboratories that produce venom to sell to pharmaceutical companies and other research institutions do not want baby snakes, they want big snakes because they produce a lot more venom. Data from these labs indicate that the venom yield from three-foot rattlesnakes is 100X the yield from one-foot juveniles. The photos below are actual venom extractions from a nearly three-foot male (left) and a 13-inch newborn (right) Mohave Rattlesnakes. I’d take a bite from the little one rather than the adult any day!
Actual venom extractions from an adult male Mohave Rattlesnake (left) and a 13-inch baby (right). Note that the baby produced one drop that did not make it to the bottom of the beaker. (50 mL beakers; about the size of a shot glass)
So there will be little rattlesnakes, about the size of pencils, around wooded and brushy areas for the next couple of months. To be sure, while their bites are less dangerous than bites by bigger snakes, any rattlesnake bite requires evaluation in a hospital emergency department without delay. By spring, the babies will be much more scarce because the little guys have many more predators than the adults.
