Rattlesnake

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Well, she finally got the job done :) It took Jessica's eyesight to find the new location where she had them. She moved around this year. I am relieved she did not have something wrong with her. This is the first time in a long time I have seen her coiled :)

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manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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Every neonate I have viewed look like this.
I have never seen baby rattlesnakes in person so very well could be.Baby kings and milks and water snakes and garters are very colorful right out of the eggs.Maybe it's a crytpo thing.Even adult rattlers are not really colorful.((% of the population would like nothing better then to kill one so dull camo might be for the best.Wonder why other snakes are bright? bright colors in nature often mean dangerous or venomous.I guess some critters opt for invisibility and other are going for the shock factor.
 
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NJChileHead

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I have never seen baby rattlesnakes in person so very well could be.Baby kings and milks and water snakes and garters are very colorful right out of the eggs.Maybe it's a crytpo thing.Even adult rattlers are not really colorful.((% of the population would like nothing better then to kill one so dull camo might be for the best.Wonder why other snakes are bright? bright colors in nature often mean dangerous or venomous.I guess some critters opt for invisibility and other are going for the shock factor.

I believe that there is a first shed right after live birth. Garters, water snakes, copperheads and rattlers all give live birth, so they'll have that ashy, dull appearance until they shed the first time. For the record, I believe that the first shed is within a few days of the birth, so I'm thinking that these snakes were born within a short time frame of Teegate finding them. The neonates will hang around for a while to scent mark the mother and then disburse. The complexity of the social interactions between mother and babies is still being explored but there's evidence of some basic forms of parental care in rattlers. Very exciting and very cool! Teegate, thank you again for sharing!!!
 
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manumuskin

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You have educated me Mark!I never knew live birthers were"nt as brightly colored or that they scent marked their mother.I knew that snakes leave trails to refind their dens but I didn't know they wanted to refind Mommy!
 
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