Changing how people view and treat snakes
July 16 is World Snake Day! While snakes are threatened by many of the same issues that affect all wildlife (habitat loss, climate change, and disease), negative attitudes toward snakes may be the biggest barrier to their conservation because it often impedes efforts to address other threats. So do your part by spreading positive messages […]
World Snake Day 2015 Read More »
New videos in our YouTube series Snake Peeks Even where snakes are common, they can be difficult to observe because they are shy and easily disturbed. Through good fortune and patience we’ve been able to record brief moments in the lives of wild snakes. These portraits of behavior may oppose what many (most?) people
Snake Peeks: Lovers, Fighters, Drinking, Hunting Read More »
The male combat “dance” of snakes – rattlesnakes among them – is an affair wherein the obvious isn’t the truth, and the truth is stranger than the obvious (Laurence Klauber, in Rattlesnakes, p. 703) When we think of combat, graphic images of violent competition come to mind: humans with swords or guns, sheep ramming their
Lovers and Fighters Read More »
I am currently reviewing all the footage from the dens this past spring and will have many things to share very soon (until then, you can see a new timelapse photo almost daily on our facebook page). Recently, I came across some rather unusual behavior: What’s unusual about this? Well, interactions among snakes at our
A tussle at the den? Read More »
(if you haven’t already, see part 1) When we left our 3 gophersnakes, Bluto had just interrupted courtship between Popeye and Olive Oyl and was biting Popeye repeatedly along his body. Popeye released his bite-grip on Olive Oyl and she fled so fast that we were unable to follow. Bluto continued biting Popeye, making him
Ménage à trois (part 2) Read More »
29 May 2011 – House Rock Valley – Northern Arizona In 1996, The Peregrine Fund reintroduced California condors to northern Arizona. Once down to a mere 22 captives, there are now nearly 200 condors flying free in the southwestern US. We visited northern Arizona in hopes of finding snakes beneath soaring condors. We learned of
Ménage à trois (part 1) Read More »