Rattlesnakes are one of the most feared animals, and it is said that human fear of this reptile can be traced back to the early days of primitive society. Whether in ancient legends, but also in modern novels and movies, it has become synonymous with horror, danger, indifference, and loneliness. However, the latest scientific research shows that rattlesnakes are not as scary as people think, because they, like many animals, do not actively attack humans unless they are threatened. As scientific research progresses, the title of cold-blooded loner no longer seems to fit them.
Rattlesnakes belong to the venomous snake family of snakes, with more than 30 species. All of the world's rattlesnakes come from the Western Hemisphere, mainly in North America. Scientific research has found that this animal has a short evolutionary history and is one of the last to evolve.
Rattlesnake has such a strange name because it has a string of chain rings on its tail, which emit a clear and audible hissing sound when its tail swings to deter large ungulates or carnivores. The rattlesnake also has a unique feature: it has a pit on each side of its head. A pit is a heat dissipation organ that can be used to probe the location of prey. Unlike other snakes, the rattlesnake does not lay eggs and reproduces in the form of egg-born offspring, that is, hatching juvenile snakes in the body and laying about 10 in a litter. Female rattlesnakes reproduce every two years, and eggs hatch in the mother for about 90 days before the young snakes are born. In order to survive, during the evolution of young snakes can be independently moved within a few minutes after birth, venom is their best weapon to protect themselves, so some rattlesnakes and their young snakes are even more poisonous than adult snakes.
Rattlesnakes generally come out after dusk, and hungry rattlesnakes often look for a hidden ambush point, lurking there waiting for small mammals such as rats, ground squirrels, and rabbits that pass by. The rattlesnake's flexible forked tongue can quickly pop out, retract, and suck odorous particles from the ground, which are then adsorbed to a special odorous organ in the upper jaw part of the mouth. Then, it lay quietly there and "waited for the rabbit".
Rattlesnakes, accustomed to predation at night, even on dark nights without moonlight, do not affect its prey. The heat-sensing organs on both sides of the snake's head are at work, and it can detect the heat emanating from the rodent, so that the rattlesnake can "see" the thermal image of its prey. As long as the body temperature of the prey is slightly higher than the surrounding environment, the rattlesnake can issue a quick and powerful blow to the prey in the dark, and then inject the venom from the poisonous fangs into the prey. After delivering a fatal blow to its prey, the rattlesnake pops its forked tongue at great speed to suck scent particles from the ground to help it determine the location of its dead prey. Rattlesnakes, like other animals, only look for prey when they are hungry. Adult rattlesnakes hunt on average once every two weeks, depending on the size of the prey, and if the prey is large, the rattlesnake will have a longer interval between prey and vice versa. Baby rattlesnakes prey more frequently, about once a week.
In people's impression, the snake is a lonely cold-blooded animal, must be a solitary "lone ranger". But recently scientists have discovered a rare phenomenon: a female rattlesnake has been with its newborn pups for at least 9 days. The reason why it is rare is because scientists have always believed that snakes are completely cold-blooded loners.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a loving and affectionate rattlesnake</h1>
In the past, it was believed that female rattlesnakes would leave on their own feet after giving birth to their pups. But zoologists have found hidden rocks in arizona's Chirikawa Mountains that the female rattlesnake spends at least 9 days next to her newborn child. On the fourth day after the birth of the young snake, 5 young snakes were found crawling near the female snake. These small snakes are moved outside their place of residence, and even placed on the surrounding grass to keep them away from the mother snake. However, after 1 hour, several small snakes returned to the mother snake. When a small snake crawls above the head of the female snake, the female snake simply moves its position slightly, showing great patience. Gradually, the mother snake began to take the child outside the cave to soak up the sun. On the 9th day after birth, the first molting of the baby snake after birth began, and the female snake watched with concern two or three meters away, protecting them from predators. The first molting is like a snake's coming-of-age ritual, after which the baby snake leaves its mother and begins to live independently. This kind of care of the mother snake for the child has shocked the scientists, so they call this kind of care "maternal care".
In addition to "maternal care," scientists have found that there is also "sisterhood" between rattlesnakes.
American biologist Clark once placed several female rattlesnakes in a cage for observation. It turned out that the rattlesnake sisters were very close to each other, they maintained an average distance of 6 centimeters from each other during their breaks, and most of the time they were intertwined with each other, twisting their bodies, as if two small children were playing together, while the non-sister rattlesnakes kept an average distance of 14 centimeters from each other and rarely "communicated".
In the experiment, it was also found that the male snakes generally maintain a long distance between them. This is because the abundance of food and the warm climate push males into a state of pre-reproductive readiness, in which they cannot tolerate the presence of other males nearby. Every spring, on the shores of Lake Manitoba in Canada, as the temperature rises, the hibernating snakes gradually wake up, at which time hundreds of rattlesnakes come out of their hibernation sites. This is a spectacular sight among the wildlife that attracts many people to observe every year.
In winter, like other animals living in cold areas, rattlesnakes will go into caves to hibernate to survive the cold winter months, then, in a cave there are usually hundreds of rattlesnakes entangled together. It's also rarely a time when rattlesnakes can tolerate each other. Can they also identify who their "loved ones" are? When winter has passed, do the entangled snakes think that there is no need to partner with other snakes and leave? What kind of interactions do they produce that people can't notice? In snakes, complex social systems are very common, but the relationship is very delicate and needs to be further explored by scientists.
As the saying goes: once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of the well rope. People are most worried about being bitten by snakes, but the latest study found that rattlesnakes only attack humans when they are protecting themselves. If they are frightened, they first choose to flee or hide, in which case there is no danger as long as you keep a certain distance from them. Different kinds of rattlesnakes react differently when they encounter humans: some will hide themselves and lie still in place by virtue of their similar colors to their surroundings, while others will quietly slip away, and if this is not enough to ensure safety, they will either hiss, or vibrate their tails, or enlarge their bodies to deter the enemy.
Most rattlesnakes warn before attacking, but if they are frightened while they molt or breed, they may suddenly and quickly attack their targets. When you walk in dense jungle or rocky areas, be sure to watch out for where your feet or where your hands are.
If you encounter a rattlesnake while traveling, never try to kill it. Many people are bitten by snakes because they try to kill them. If once you have been bitten by a poisonous snake, you must immediately go to the hospital as quickly as possible, never treat it at home, and never despise snake injuries, although most snakes do not pose a fatal threat to people.
Snakes may disturb our lives to some extent, but these beautiful reptiles are very important to our ecology because they can control the reproduction of rodents such as rats. We must protect snakes as friends in favor of humanity, and not try to destroy them because we are born with a fear of them. With a little attention to the underside of our feet when we travel, we can make peace with this deadly but at the same time fascinating predator.
Topic: Have you ever seen a snake? What other snake do you know besides rattlesnakes?