ASP changes how people view and treat snakes
ASP changes how people view and treat snakes
Snakes are first cowards, then bluffers, and last of all warriors (Pope, C.H. 1958. Snakes Alive and How They Live. Viking Press, New York, NY). Yesterday morning Lula (our dog) and I headed back from tracking our rattlesnakes on a trail through the mesquite forest. Lula was only a step or two ahead, so I
Bluffers & Cowards Read More »
Because of our remote location, there is no trash pickup at Muleshoe Ranch. We have a couple trash bins where we accumulate bags of trash from residents and guests until we get a chance to take it to the local dump (~one hour away). Over the winter, rodents moved into our trash bins and created
Roger, adult male Arizona black rattlesnake named for Roger Repp (photo by Roger Repp). We’ve been really lucky to have some fantastic volunteers at the site this spring (and also why I haven’t had time to update the blog :-)). One volunteer did his own write up of our adventures last weekend, which I highly
Special, unofficial, guest blogger Read More »
This has been a strange spring here at the rattlesnake dens. It has either been unusually hot or like this: 14 April 2012 Last year, we saw a gradual increase in social basking behavior, followed by snakes dispersing for their summer hunting grounds. That process has been halted and restarted twice this year already! But,
I’m hoping to have some current stuff to post soon, as the snake activity is really picking up right now, but I haven’t had a chance to go through our photos and videos yet. So, here’s a little something from last year, just for fun! A cold storm brought some much needed precipitation (a mix
Awhile back we dedicated an entire post to the lucky or skillful young rattlesnakes that survived their first winter. In this population neonate (newborn) rattlesnakes have less than a month to find their first meal and locate a safe place to spend the winter. Of course it helps when your mom gives birth a couple
Teardrop & TIE Fighter Read More »
So in our last post there was one rattlesnake left that was still in his den as of 30 March. I checked on that snake this morning and am happy to report that Chris (male Arizona black rattlesnake) has emerged! He has not yet moved away from his den site, but was getting some sun
And the last snake has risen Read More »
Or rather, has been here (I’m a little behind in posting :-)). After many boring weeks of tracking our rattlesnakes and seeing almost nothing (we were sometimes able to glimpse a few inches of two of the Arizona black rattlesnakes), nearly all of them have now emerged from their dens. The first signs of spring
Back in November, we told you about a new snake den in the Galiuro Mountains (Scenes from a new den). We have been monitoring that den with our timelapse cameras ever since. After a relatively quiet winter, activity is really picking up around here. Based on our fall observations, we knew that western diamond-backed rattlesnakes
December and January were pretty quiet here at the ranch; as you can see from the above photo, the weather has not exactly been snakey. OK, it only snowed a couple times and melted pretty quickly, but it has still been too cold for snake activity. Even Jaydin (adult male black-tailed rattlesnake) finally settled into
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