Knowing Nature with Denny

These snakes can rattle your cage

Your initial thought when you first hear this sound is that it is an electric buzzer or a cicada on steroids. The shaking of a baby’s rattle never crosses your mind, but in fact it is the sound of a Western rattlesnake. The number of segments on the rattle does not indicate the true age of the snake, since rattlesnakes lose portions of their rattles as they age.

 

'Rattler captured in the orchard, hiding in the grass'

Some folks jump first then look, other folks look first then jump. In either case, involuntary jumping is an often exhibited behavior. These are not your anaconda size specimens. They barely stretch out to 4 feet and can be as small as 18 inches. When coiled they can only strike out about 2 feet. To be one of the unlucky bitten, you usually must step on it or reach under something and touch it.

Everyone has a different attitude about snakes. They tend to love them or hate them. Our horses are the same. Cindy’s horse, Chick, will suddenly freak, jump 3 feet in the air and land heading in the opposite direction. My horse, Laura, just yawns and walks on by. To say the least, Cindy has to always pay attention while I can sleep at the wheel.

If bitten, the odds are not totally against you. Unlike the bite of the vampire, Western rattlers do not inject venom in 25% of their bites.  Why, because the snake does not consider you to be prey and does not want to waste good venom on something it can't eat. A rattlesnake bite seldom delivers enough venom to kill a human, although painful swelling and discoloration may occur.

Your dog is much more likely to get the bite. Hounds have a way of following their noses. In this case right into the face of the rattler who can’t resist striking that easy target, the snout. If you dog is healthy, antibiotics and snake anti-venom usually solve the problem. For those of you who live in snake country there is a vaccine available for your K-9 friend which greatly reduces their reaction to snake bites.

 

'Western Rattlesnake on our patio in eastern Washington' 

At the eastern Washington house we typically have rattlesnake encounters about 6 times a year. Much more common are the gopher, rubber boa and racer snakes that cruise the lawn, garden and orchard. I know folks who kill rattlers on sight. Cindy and I use a loop on a pole to snag them by their head. We then release them in an old log pile on the far side of the property. We leave them alone and they reciprocate.

For years, Cindy had one hanging out in the garden. We left it there and never had any problems with chipmunks digging up the veggies. The Washington Department of Wildlife has some good info on the snakes of Washington.

If you do relocate a snake, take note that snakes do not stray far from home. Rattlesnakes are most common near their den areas, which are generally in rock crevices exposed to sunshine. They often lounge around the entrance to the den on warm sunny days prior to and after hibernating. You are most likely to see them at night and dusk during the spring and fall when moving to and from hibernation sites. Moved further than 3 miles from the den, the snake is likely to die when the weather turns cold.

Be amazed, Denny

The bats and the snake

There was a mystery at the eastern Washington house. The house has a porch over a patio. Cindy and I had noticed scat under the porch. Scat is the technical term for poop, number 2 or crap, as you may know. Both of us were almost certain that it was of the mouse. We would sweep it away, but later in the day more would mysteriously appear. Mice usually operate at night. Mouse scat appearing in daylight was very odd.

This kept us guessing for a few days. Finally, Cindy heard tiny little squeaking noises, looked up and wedged between two rafters were 3 small bats. These guys can eat 600 mosquitoes an hour. We had been finding their bug laden scat. Very cool to have bats in the belfry. At night they went bug hunting. Bats will fly 1/2 to 6 miles from their roost to feed. During the day they returned to their roost and lounged around in their batty way.

Our research determined that they were the common ‘little brown bat’. They can eat their body weight in food each night. Bats often capture insects when flying by scooping them into their tail or wing membranes and then putting the insects into their mouth. This causes the erratic flight folks see when they observe bats feeding in the evening.

In late fall they move to a hibernation site where they sleep away the winter. Little browns prefer underground caves that have a constant year round temperature in the mid 50 degree range. Cindy and I know just were that winter abode might be. Not far away was an abandoned mine.

 

"A bats eye view of the dogs looking into the mouth of the mine"

One day we noticed that the bat scat was gone. Had the bats left us? No, they were still in the rafters. Had they stopped going potty? Unlikely. What was up?

A young gopher snake had begun to hang out in the flower planter near the bats. At first glance the gopher snake looks like a rattle snake. They even curl up and make a hissing sound. The hiss is produced by an organ in the mouth called the glottis. The glottis opens and closes rapidly, imitating the rattle of a rattlesnake. The gopher snake can also spread and flatten its head, thereby resembling a rattler even more. An unsure predator or human mistakes this behavior for a rattlesnake and backs off.

Our snake was recycling the bat scat. There must have been enough residual nutrients in the scat to attract the snake. These young snakes eat a lot of insects. As adults they hunt small rodents, young rabbits, lizards, birds and occasionally other snakes, usually by their sense of small. Gopher snakes hibernate like the bat, retreating to communal dens, sometimes sharing the lair with rattlesnakes, whipsnakes or racers.

When the snake was not hanging out in the planter, it liked to lie on this power cord basking in the afternoon sun. Did the cord bring back memories of mom? Not likely. Gopher snakes never know their mom. Six weeks after mating, females lay a clutch of 2 to 24 eggs. Hatchlings emerge fully developed within 10 weeks, and are large enough to eat small mice. Gopher snakes in the wild reach maturity in 3 to 4 years.

Throughout summer and early fall we enjoyed the company of the bats and the snake. As October matured, the average daily temperature slowly dropped and the days got increasingly shorter. One day our visitors were gone, each moving to their respective winter home.

Will they return in the spring?

Be amazed, Denny