Someone recently told me that rattlesnakes don’t rattle anymore. Is this true? What is the world coming to?🙃
I mean, the title pretty much says it.
Hope Duke grad (and international music star) is doing alright. He was bitten by a baby rattlesnake and airlifted to a hospital.
There are few sounds that make you jump in the woods as much as a rattlesnake rattling...
Someone recently told me that rattlesnakes don’t rattle anymore. Is this true? What is the world coming to?🙃
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Maybe it was just an attempt to cover Zappa.
(get well soon)
I have heard that some snakes no longer rattle. It was characterized as perhaps a beneficial adaption — natural selection in progress, as perhaps no longer rattling gives an advantage to snakes avoiding humans.
I have no idea if it is true. I have never fact checked this.
Last edited by left_hook_lacey; 08-10-2019 at 03:36 PM.
Rattlesnakes not rattling anymore is apparently a myth although there a couple of very specific species where this has occurred to make them better hunters:
https://rattlesnakesolutions.com/sna...their-rattles/
"Are rattlesnakes evolving to rattle less, or losing their rattles?"
Nope. But the topic is interesting, regardless. This is a relatively new myth that’s something to watch, where those of us who regularly work to dispel rattlesnake mythology see spread and grow across the country."
In fact, in South Dakota's Black Hills, there is a population of the deadly prairie rattler that is losing its ability to rattle, because of a genetic defect in the tail tip. The muscles there are atrophied in this population, preventing this very dangerous snake from rattling.
Checked with a friend who is doing work to protect the last few hundred eastern diamondback rattlers in NC, and he says he has never heard of such a thing in the rattlesnakes he deals with, the timber, pygmy, and eastern diamondback rattlers. Also, all pit vipers will vibrate their tails, even cottonmouths and copperheads.
Liked the pics of the black racer and eastern coachwhip, left hook. I have only seen two eastern coachwhips in my life. A very aggressive, active snake.
Last edited by Devilwin; 08-10-2019 at 03:50 PM.
It is however true that rattlers don’t always rattle before they strike.
There are hundreds of yards of bridges meandering through the swamp at Carolina Coulours. Both of these were seen from a bridge as we were driving the golf cart over it.
But yes, I did put one in the woods, and these early sightings almost kept me from looking for my ball. Almost. 😁
We saw three of the eastern coachwhips in the same place. My wife and I both made the comment that we had never seen a snake like that before.
My wife took the pic I posted, but I was actually looking at a different snake in the same spot. It wasn't until later when I looked at her pic that I realized there just have been more than one snake in that area, because the pic she took wasn't the one I was looking at.
That entire golf course is built in what used to be nothing but swamp and forest.
It is a sprawling, massive course. We often stop on the bridges and just watch the wild life. I've seen everything on that course including bears.
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
9F 9F 9F
https://ecogreen.greentechaffiliate.com
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
I heard it was more of a 'kids these days' problem...
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Even grass snakes rattle me.