Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis)

Upon visiting the hibernaculum in the grasslands national park here in Canada, we stumbled across 50 or more rattlesnakes like this one, As summer ends, up to 1000 rattlesnakes all venture back to these over wintering places where they go underground and intertwine with each other. Other snake species also use the same caves including bull snakes, garter snakes and racers. In days (hopefully) gone farmers used to blow these hibernaculums up with dynamite effectively killing up to 1000 snakes at once and leaving up to 10km square snake free. (not hard to eliminate a species that way eh?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is a beautiful photo of this guy. I can tell you that I would have been moving in the opposite direction.

Dr. Alan Dean Hamilton, Ph.D. said...

Hello; I am A Research-Scientist/Nuclear-Engineer/Electrical-Engineer and,... Unfortunately I AM ALSO A FARMER!!! Such Statements as those in Your Web-Site Statement only serve to nourish Hatred and are un-productive to anybody!!! My Family has Owned and Managed the same section[640 Acres - 1 Mile (by) 1-Mile] for 62 Years and We DO NOT believe in the indiscriminate slaughter of any Animal Species!!! As I attempt to express and develop means of Peaceful CO-EXISTANCE with these wonderful creatures,... Whom, By the Way Do Us All A Great Service,... Please Don't Ruin My chances to Sway opinions that are Hard-Rooted and Long-Standing!!!! Please,... Instead,... Let Us Review Our Past Attitudes as a Species[HOMO SAPIEN] and how We have impacted OUR FRIENDS[CROTALUS VIRIDUS - Western Prairie Rattlesanke] ..... Let's All Get Off Of Name Calling and Judgement and Get on to the Truth!!! We Can Do This Together,... We Better Darn Well Do It Soon!!! Huh!???

Thank You and Sincerely;

Dr. Alan Dean Hamilton, Ph.D.
misterfixitdeluxe@yahoo.com

Jeremy said...

I think you totally mids-read my statement - or your lens is slightly out of focus - not sure how you could take this personally or as a hate driven comment.