Sneaky Snakes

Being born and raised on a farm here in Pennsylvania, I have grown accustom to many different species of animals. I am accepting to most until they inflict fear upon me. Of all, I am most fearful of snakes. They are very sneaky and are likely to appear most places where I am, i.e the river, the woods, my back yard, etc. My main concern with these animals is that they are evolving and becoming more dangerous. Recently, I have heard that rattlesnakes are evolving to no longer rattle to warn predators (me) that they are present.Southern-Pacific-Rattlesnake-jpgr

First, I want to look at how and why rattlesnakes rattle. Rattling is a result of fear in the snake alone. When frightened by something larger than its own, the tale of the snake will stand vertically and shake back and forth, creating a rattling noise. This is to warn a predator that its venomous self is present. According to this site, the rattle consists of segments made of keratin (what our fingernails are made of) and an individual snake will gain a segment after every time it shed its skin. These segments are hollow and make the noise when muscles in the tail contract making the segments knock together.

Now, why would an animal cease to warn predators of their existence?

Well it turns out that certain species of rattle snakes are becoming endangered. The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is one in particular that is nearing extinction. Legally, laws have been set to prohibit the killing of these animals but it seems to be that they are taking protection themselves as well. Two news sources have covered stories about rattle snakes becoming silent and no longer giving warnings. Sarah Story, from ABC News, talked to experts about their thoughts on the silencing of rattles. Herpetologist, Daryl Sprout says, “It is very true that in nature that natural selection is already beginning to prefer snakes that do not bring attention to themselves and therefore draw incoming fire from humans” Meanwhile, zoo keeper Mike Clanton believes that this is the snake’s way of evolving. Together these statements go hand in hand and explain a lot. Now we have an idea as to why they are no longer rattling, it is because they are surviving longer without it, which is what an expert from another article has to say. Steve Reaves says, “The theory is we’ve created a snake through killing the ones that do rattle, we’ve created a rattlesnake that doesn’t tend to rattle so much,” It is shocking to think that we have created a new species that inflicts even more fear on humans.

This leads me to wonder if there will be more or less rattle snake encounters. Will there be less because we can no longer see them to fear them? Or will there more because we can no longer see them and we walk into their territory? How will they evolve next?

 

One thought on “Sneaky Snakes

  1. Briana Michelle Wright

    You mentioned that there are laws against humans killing rattle snakes and I was wondering if that was a thing where you’re from… but I didn’t know that rattle snakes rattling was by choice, I thought they did it by nature. So the fact that they can just become silent in order to remain safe is astonishing to me. My question is do you know why rattle snakes rattle/ed to begin with? Also, would that be the equivalent to.. let’s say humans realized that blinking caused us to be oblivious so we just stopped…? Is it a self conscious act to rattle or do they rattle the way humans use telephones- as a benefit?

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