Snake Count is here!
I’ll end this week’s roundup of snakes with the snake that started my obsession with rattlesnakes, black-tailed rattlesnakes (Crotalus molossus, hereafter blacktails).
Many, many years ago, I attended the International Herpetological Symposium just for fun, as the only reptiles I worked with at the time were of the feathered variety. I met (who is now) my oldest and dearest friend at that meeting, who was key in reawakening my lifelong love of snakes. And there was a presentation that blew my mind and changed the course of my life forever. Harry Greene talked about his black-tail project and in particular that they take care of their kids.
Snakes? Take care of their kids? So long birds!
It was five more years before I started my first rattlesnake project and I haven’t looked back since. I still haven’t seen parental care in blacktails, but I have gotten to see them do some other really cool things.
Jaydin (male) in a tree.
Persephone (female) in a tree.
Jaydin (left, male) and Persephone (right, female), 24 July 2012.
Jaydin in combat with Marty over Persephone.
Maybe this will be the year, 15 years later, that I finally get to see a blacktail family (Persephone, please?).
Who says dreams don’t come true?
🙂 melissa
Rattlesnake Research at Muleshoe Ranch 
Awwww…thanks, and you’ve certainly repaid me MANY times over with your own exciting discoveries! Onward!
Glad you were able to get over those birds!