Scientist: Rattlers ‘beautiful, elegant’

LEWISTON – To most people, rattlesnakes are creepy creatures that produce a jolt of panic when they stumble on them in the wilds.

But to some, rattlers are shy, mysterious animals that elicit wonder instead of fear.

“To me they are just sort of this charismatic animal,” says Chuck Peterson, a herpetologist at Idaho State University in Pocatello. “Whenever I see them I get a thrill. It’s like seeing a grizzly bear or an eagle. To me they are a very beautiful, elegant animal.”

Joel Sauder, nongame biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston, admits snakes scare him at first glance. But after that first pulse of fear, wonder takes over. He and fellow Fish and Game biologist Frances Cassirer brake for rattlesnakes and shoo them off roads when they see them. They fear drivers will purposely run over the snakes.

Rattlesnakes and most other reptiles and amphibians are now protected in Idaho. The Idaho Legislature approved a rule this spring that makes it illegal to kill most species of snakes, other reptiles and creatures like bats.

“There is a caveat to that, and the rattlesnake is part of the reason for that caveat,” says Rita Dixon, a biologist in the department’s natural resources bureau at Boise. “Because in some people’s mind rattlesnakes pose a threat; if someone perceives they are in danger from a rattlesnake, they can kill it.”

Another caveat to the law allows people to collect up to four live rattlesnakes a year for their personal use. Sauder says you can have four live rattlesnakes in your possession, but you can’t have four dead ones. He explains the rule against killing them is quite flexible. There is no definition of what a threat is.

“If you have two living under your house, that is obviously a threat to you, your kids or your pets, and (killing them) is fully allowed under the law.”

However, he says, if you are out hiking and you see a snake slither across a trail and under a rock, that is not likely a threat. Having a snake in or around your camp might be a threat to some but not to others. What clearly is not allowed, says Sauder, is seeking out rattlesnake dens, and exterminating hundreds of snakes as they hibernate.

“The reason (for the rule) was to keep people from just wantonly destroying them. There is no point to that.”

So what is so cool about rattlesnakes? The list is long for Peterson. He says their markings are beautiful and he’s fascinated by their ability to see in infrared. Of course the fact they have rattles to warn people and animals from stepping on them is unique.

Peterson says rattlers can live to be 30 years old in cooler climates. Most females don’t reach sexual maturity for several years and only 20 to 30 percent of the females reproduce each year.

They breed in the summer. Mother snakes stay with their young for about 10 days, Peterson says. After they shed their skins for the first time they are on their own.

They winter in dens that can have hundreds of snakes. At the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory in southeastern Idaho, where access is limited and Peterson studies rattlers, dens can have more than 1,000 snakes.

When they emerge from their dens in the spring individual snakes will move up to five miles away. Peterson and his students capture rattlesnakes and surgically implant them with radio devices that emit a tracking signal.

They eat mice, voles and other small rodents. Their movements are dependent on air temperature. The cold-blooded animals have to guard against temperature extremes. In the early spring and early fall they can often be found on sun-warmed roads in the early morning or at night. They are out and around when temperatures are neither too hot nor cold.

“They are really dictated more by temperature then they are light,” Sauder says.

Although they have a reputation for being aggressive they really are not, at least not in this part of the country, Peterson says.

“It just doesn’t make sense for snakes to attack people. What could they possible get out if it,” he says. “Why would a snake want to move 10 feet over and bite you. There is just no reason a snake would do that.”