My daughter photo'd this male timber rattler crossing the road about 4 miles from her house, today. He was heading uphill toward the den on Sunrise Mountain in Stokes State Forest. Rattlers were wiped out in this den until my Dad and I restocked it about 50 years ago. They do not travel far enough from the den to get out of the state forest and into human habitation. How do I know it is a male? Female rattlers here give live birth right at the den around mid August so they would not be where this one was. Also females are thicker in the body towards the tail.

did you just say that the female of the species have fat butts?

seriously, though...GREAT post!

Thanks, Eric!

Thanks for sharing the picture. I will pass on those critters.

Mac

…. They were protected around here ….not sure why… don’t like anything that can strike above the boot

I’m gonna give you a pass ha ha ha ha!

I just knowed it was going to be a picture of Newt

Very cool!

Lunch and a hat band, cool

I had no idea y'all had rattlesnakes. Thanks for posting.

I'm somewhat close to Eric , a couple states away.
Our rattlesnakes are protected , to the point of being endangered. There is a couple of pockets here where you might find one. I know where that is , but I won't tell anyone local here because they would mess with them and we need more. Very rare here.

I've only seen one rattlesnake in Ohio and I've spent thousands of hours snake hunting by myself and with friends. Snake hunting was one of my favorite things to do. Over many years, I sold literal thousands of snakes to the pet trade. The only rattlesnake I ever saw was dead one going across the entire entrance road to the main part of the Mead Experimental Forest hunting area. It was close to 8' long, even though it was missing it's head and rattles. I thought it was likely an exotic snake, because of the size, until I got home and looked up Timber rattlers in my Audubon Guide.

My friend Leroy and I spent a lot of time flipping tin put out for Massauga rattlesnake habitat, plus other suitable debris, in two areas they were supposed to live in and never found a single Massauga.

I mostly caught garter snakes, Northern watersnakes, black kingsnakes, queensnakes, Kirtland's snakes, Dekay's snakes, ringneck snakes, black rat snakes, black racers and Eastern milk snakes.

Keith

My first question was going to be how you determined it was a male

One of the most beautiful snakes

No idea they were found as far north as NJ


I will add that they are one of the most docile snakes I have encountered

Just across the Delaware river from Eric is Pike County PA. The rattle snake population is stable there.

We have a good population of rattlesnakes here in the Hudson valley and Catskill mountains

Is there a reason you WANT rattlers? I wont take my dog too far west to bird hunt before it gets cold because of them.

We have quite a few here. One below I stepped on a week or two ago when I was lifting a tarp in the yard and snake was coiled under the tarp and I was stepping forward at the same time I was removing tarp. Stepped right in the middle of it. Wife was on the other corner of tarp. If she had stepped on it, she would have either died or demanded we move out of house before sundown. Snake thrashed around under my foot - which I removed pretty quickly. Never tried to bite or even rattle. Felt a little bad about killing it but our rule is no venomous snakes in the yard. One of the prettiest snakes I have seen




Moved this one yesterday out of road a mile from the house before he became a highway fatality - also on my property. Most docile snake of any kind I have ever seen

I used to stop when I found one sunning on the road to shoo it off before someone killed it.

(they probably all crawled back after I left)

…. No such thing as a cane break that big

I thought this topic and photo was going to be about Newt showing how to set coil springs for coon, rats and otter.