Researchers track snakes to study populations...( e found things about timber rattlesnake...)

e found things about timber rattlesnakes that are counterintuitive. Their breeding time is late summer and early fall and not the spring. While males can wander as much as a couple of miles a week, the females, after giving birth, stay with newborns until the young shed about seven to 10 days later. The females generally stay closer to home, but the males are more active and consequently have longer home ranges.

Most adults are homies returning to the same area year after year after leaving their den sites others seek out new turf, especially during their rapid growth years.

Timber rattlesnakes have rattles that are rarely used because with camouflage there is no sense in giving away your location, Drda added.

The quintessential suburban lawn is not the preferred habitat of timber rattlesnakes. But occasionally a suburbanite in the colleagues research areas sees one passing through. The team has trained people in the area to contact them so that they can capture and release.

Our goals are to understand the ways of these species and to educate suburbanites and rural people about them, so that we can keep a proper balance in the face of development, Drda said.

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Contact: Tony fitzpatrick
tony_fitzpatrick@wustl.edu
314-935-5272
Washington University in St. Louis
19-Jun-2007


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