Changing how people view and treat snakes
Is it her simple body plan? Her poker face? Or perhaps a vast mythology of her malevolence and supernatural abilities? Humans have a tough time describing what snakes do, let alone understanding why they do it. Proud skeptics that they are, scientists long doubted that snakes are capable of complex behavior. Reports of pitviper aggregations, …
A snake’s scaled snout pokes forth from a crag recess and feels its first direct rays of sun in months. Her body remains in passage, still nearly as cold as the contents of your refrigerator. After months in her dark retreat, her now-warming head, the seat of most information sensing and processing, must be overwhelmed …
Chris Jenkins interviews ASP’s Executive Director, Melissa Amarello, on episode 14 of the Snake Talk podcast. We discussed ASP’s research on rattlesnake social behavior, how we use that information to change the public’s perception of snakes, and how we work in the advocacy arena using our work on rattlesnake roundups as an example.
To celebrate ASP’s fifth birthday, we’re sharing five inspiring stories with you — a new one each week through the end of 2019. Read them all here. Late this summer we visited one of our study sites after a near two-year absence. It was nesting season and though we saw fewer snakes than in years …
We got a chance to visit some old friends recently and made some new ones. Just a gorgeous female Arizona black rattlesnake enjoying a warm spring day. Adult Arizona black rattlesnakes chilling near their den. How many do you see? (find the answer key at the bottom of this page) Whipsnakes may have …
New videos in our YouTube series Snake Peeks Even where snakes are common, they can be difficult to observe because they are shy and easily disturbed. Through good fortune and patience we’ve been able to record brief moments in the lives of wild snakes. These portraits of behavior may oppose what many (most?) people …
We were only able to pay a quick visit to our favorite rattlesnake nest sites in 2013, but it was a very productive trip. As always, we were greeted by familiar faces, one in particular a delightful surprise. In most snakes, we’re missing some basic information: How long do they live? How old are they …
Surprisingly like birds and mammals Back when we were called Social Snakes, I loved the quizzical looks I often got in response to that name followed by “But snakes aren’t social…” Au contraire, indeed they are, as are many lizards (together termed squamates) and their social behavior is more like birds and mammals than many guess! Social skinks …
As I reflected on my favorite snake moments of 2013, I realized we hadn’t shared the best story of all! We added Luna and Cat to our study at Muleshoe in 2012 for one reason – we wanted to observe maternal care in Arizona black rattlesnakes at our new site. Despite all we’ve seen, mother …
Read part 1, when good transmitters go bad, here. Jeff returned shortly with Bane! He had moved, but luckily not far. We contacted the transmitter manufacturer, who graciously offered to repair the faulty transmitter and have it back to us in a week. While that is very fast turnaround, we didn’t want to keep Bane …