Amazing that you can deduct the events from tracks on the ground! Useful skill for anyone close to a desert and also generally a fun one to have! :)
The snake looks kinda cute and cuddly! I'm sure you'd advise me not to try petting one though.
Amazing that you can deduct the events from tracks on the ground! Useful skill for anyone close to a desert and also generally a fun one to have! :)
The snake looks kinda cute and cuddly! I'm sure you'd advise me not to try petting one though.
Tracking was considered a skill when I was growing up. I was always curious so I learned what tracks I was seeing and soon learned to tell how fresh they were. I guess I've been doing it all my life.
Sidewinders are not particularly venomous. A full jolt from an adult female (the biggest ones) will not kill a man. It will make you wish you were doing something else at the time. We do have some Mohave Greens in the neighborhood that are incredibly potent, they use venom and a nerve agent.
I wouldn't recommend petting, but I do like to see an occasional sidewinder. Sam has had several training sessions with them and he seems to know to leave them alone. Sidewinders will generally only bite what they can eat, so they are pretty polite about the whole deal.
I see! That does make my impression on them a bit brighter but I wouldn't try petting them anyway. Snakes are beautiful, and most of them are harmless, but I'm rightfully afraid of them. Perhaps my ancestral genes are at work.
I didn't realize before it's a rattlesnake species (and with horns no less!), makes sense to me now — when you were saying they shake and sink into the sand. I think I've seen other rattlesnakes do that too on Natgeo or discovery.
Sidewinders really like the sand. Most of the diamondbacks around here are in the 'harder' rock desert as are most of the Mohave Greens. Rattlesnakes all, but different ranges.
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