Timber Rattlesnake Symbol of USA

[viper69]

Stumbled upon this a moment ago. I watched it all. Learned some nuggets of data.

The guy below also mentions in the beginning the relevance of the Timber Rattlesnake to US history in a sense too.

Rarely do you see solid black ones I've heard. They are gorgeous. I'd love to run into one with my camera.

Extremely rare timber rattlesnake captured on camera in NH

A rare timber rattlesnake was recently captured on camera in southern New Hampshire.

www.wmur.com

 

[Ratmosphere]

One of my favorite snakes. Been trying to find one in Connecticut for the longest time. No luck, but I've heard they are out there!

 

[Brewser]

Gotta Luv
George Thorogood And The Destroyers

Song -
Who Do You Love

Lyrics -

I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire,
I got a cobra snake for a necktie
A brand new house on the roadside,
and it's made out of rattlesnake hide

Rock On ...

 

[Tentacle Toast]

I LOVE these guys! I wouldn't call them "abundant," but they're all over Western New York, in some pretty interesting places! I have had the personal pleasure of encountering one once in Zoar Valley (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoar_Valley , https://zoarvalley.org/lawn-sign-campaign/), which seems to be much lesser known than Letchworth, but way better, in my opinion (& Letchworth is GORGEOUS). That second link is to an organization that's fighting efforts to log some of it, if anyone cares to check it out.
I also saw one, shockingly, sunning itself well past where the trail technically ends at the bottom of the Niagara Gorge, within roughly a mile of the base of Niagara Falls (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Gorge). I've been going there since I was a young child, & only saw that one when I was well into my 30's.
There's also a rest area along the westbound 86 just outside of Painted Post that was shut down & fenced off that has a den nearby. I stop whenever I'm passing, but I'll likely never see one.


On a related note, I've seen a huge uptick in the number of Mississauga Rattlesnakes (Sistrurus catenatus) in the area over the last few years.

 

[viper69]

One of my favorite snakes. Been trying to find one in Connecticut for the longest time. No luck, but I've heard they are out there!

same

I LOVE these guys! I wouldn't call them "abundant," but they're all over Western New York, in some pretty interesting places! I have had the personal pleasure of encountering one once in Zoar Valley (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoar_Valley , https://zoarvalley.org/lawn-sign-campaign/), which seems to be much lesser known than Letchworth, but way better, in my opinion (& Letchworth is GORGEOUS). That second link is to an organization that's fighting efforts to log some of it, if anyone cares to check it out.
I also saw one, shockingly, sunning itself well past where the trail technically ends at the bottom of the Niagara Gorge, within roughly a mile of the base of Niagara Falls (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Gorge). I've been going there since I was a young child, & only saw that one when I was well into my 30's.
There's also a rest area along the westbound 86 just outside of Painted Post that was shut down & fenced off that has a den nearby. I stop whenever I'm passing, but I'll likely never see one.

View attachment 492991
On a related note, I've seen a huge uptick in the number of Mississauga Rattlesnakes (Sistrurus catenatus) in the area over the last few years.

One of my favorite snakes. Been trying to find one in Connecticut for the longest time. No luck, but I've heard they are out there!
[/QUOT

Timbers are definitely not common.

There’s a place by me sorta where a mtn biker rides and as he goes off a rocky ledge he often hears rattles. It’s a den no doubt as he only hears it seasonly.

Not sure how far away the trail is nor how deep into woods it is.

I’ve only seen a Western Diamondback in the wild.

I used to visit a nature center as a kid that many species of rattlesnakes, including a sidewinder!

Jamie’sTs has a gorgeous species she’s currently breeding and I believe giving away for free to those with hots experience.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

same




One of my favorite snakes. Been trying to find one in Connecticut for the longest time. No luck, but I've heard they are out there!
[/QUOT

Timbers are definitely not common.

There’s a place by me sorta where a mtn biker rides and as he goes off a rocky ledge he often hears rattles. It’s a den no doubt as he only hears it seasonly.

Not sure how far away the trail is nor how deep into woods it is.

I’ve only seen a Western Diamondback in the wild.

I used to visit a nature center as a kid that many species of rattlesnakes, including a sidewinder!

Jamie’sTs has a gorgeous species she’s currently breeding and I believe giving away for free to those with hots experience.

Well where I'm at in NY, there's really only two possibilities if you hear a rattle, & that's either the Timber (RARE, or the Mississauga (not common, but much more prevalent). I used to keep hots... primarily Eyelash vipers (Bothriechis schlegelii), but also dabbled with Rhinoceros vipers (Bitis nasicornis, those guys were sweethearts), & even had a Gila named Poncho, LoL. This was before cell phones had cameras, so all my pics are on actual film somewhere...I wanted to post pics on your thread the other day, but got frustrated.
At any rate, I COULDN'T keep Timbers because they're NY native, & required a completely different permit, as per the NY DEC. Fast forward 24 years, & I can't even get my venomous licence again, as I'm not affiliated with a university, or work with them professionally. There's 5 reasons to hate this state for every 1 there is to move it. I'll have to see what she's working on...do a little window shopping. Unless I finally leave this state, or choose to be a criminal, there's no Timbers (or anything else hot) in my near future, unfortunately.

 

[viper69]

Well where I'm at in NY, there's really only two possibilities if you hear a rattle, & that's either the Timber (RARE, or the Mississauga (not common, but much more prevalent). I used to keep hots... primarily Eyelash vipers (Bothriechis schlegelii), but also dabbled with Rhinoceros vipers (Bitis nasicornis, those guys were sweethearts), & even had a Gila named Poncho, LoL. This was before cell phones had cameras, so all my pics are on actual film somewhere...I wanted to post pics on your thread the other day, but got frustrated.
At any rate, I COULDN'T keep Timbers because they're NY native, & required a completely different permit, as per the NY DEC. Fast forward 24 years, & I can't even get my venomous licence again, as I'm not affiliated with a university, or work with them professionally. There's 5 reasons to hate this state for every 1 there is to move it. I'll have to see what she's working on...do a little window shopping. Unless I finally leave this state, or choose to be a criminal, there's no Timbers (or anything else hot) in my near future, unfortunately.

Lame state! The license is stupid how the criteria changed

Ya eye-lash are a good beginner’s hots, and quite pretty!

you should post those pics!

 

[Mike41793]

Apparently there is 1 population of timber rattlesnakes somewhere in NH, I think up near the lakes region. Would be cool to see them repopulate more. I don't think we have a state reptile. I wish I could make it the the timber rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes as a whole are fascinating to me. No interest in keeping venomous snakes but if I had to pick one , I think there's a species of pygmy rattlesnakes native to somewhere else. That's probably what I'd go for. Mini rattlers!

 

[The Snark]

I met a man once on the backside, west, of Mt. Whitney, some of the roughest terrain in the Sierra's. Elderly, a little frail, relying on a walking stick, large backpack, slowly working his way along a deer trail. He hailed me so I rode over to him. "Well, I'm lost. Where's the trail around here?" I asked if he had a topo map and he dug one out. He wanted to find the Muir towards Yosemite.

We got into a chat. I was a little concerned as he was looking at 65 miles as the crow flies, around 100 on the ground. He explained he was a retired professor, biologist and zoologist, who taught all sorts of things and was well versed in them. Watershed management, conservation, habitat management and a lot more. Quoted Darwin and others of that crowd quite a bit. I mentioned I hoped he was keeping a sharp eye out for rattlers and he gave me a huge grin and started in on a long exposé of everything rattlesnake. Fascinating, even enthralling. A vast gold mine of knowledge of enviroment and ecosystem of locations all over the continental US.
And he gave the common and Latin name of every animal he mentioned, their habits and habitat.

I pieced together he had spent his life in classrooms and wanted to spend his retired years seeing what he taught first hand. He had walked the entire length of the Appalachian and great divide and was now doing the Muir from the Salton Sea to the Canadian border. At about one mile an hour?? He knew he had another couple of weeks to catch up with his 'support crew', his daughter, also a PhD in biology, to get 'refueled'. "Yeah, I might die out here. That's fine. She knows it."

To the point. He went off into the most intricate discourse of everything rattlesnake. Advanced biology, crotalus, Intro to Rattlesnake of the N.A. continent, 3A.
"They require wilderness. The more that civilization encroaches the smaller their habitats become until they are isolated into small genetic pools." His point being the rattler is midway in the ecosystem, very reliant on an environment conducive to providing specific prey. Nowhere near an apex predator and subject to predation as is it's specific food sources. He then went on into their lives and life cycles in great detail. Simply burying me in information.
My attention was divided, watching the sun get closer to the horizon. Up there at 10,000 feet when the sun got near the horizon the temperature dropped like a rock, about 30 to 40 degrees or even more, near 80 at noon, down in the 30's at night, and I was in a T shirt with a 20 mile ride to the camp. Thus I didn't pay much attention. One of the major regrets of my life. I wish I could have gone with him, focused.

I automatically relate that encounter to Lewis Carrolls the White Knight Song...
And now, if e'er by chance I put
My fingers into glue,
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
Into a left-hand shoe,
Or if I drop upon my toe
A very heavy weight,
I weep, for it reminds me so
Of that old man I used to know--
......
That summer evening long ago
A-sitting While sitting on a gate horse.