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timber rattlesnake study
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by bush_viper17 on September 3, 2004
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Hi everyone, Ive been doing a personal timber rattler study at an undisclosed location. So far ive found 5 in one area all summer. Ive been observing two for notes. Ive found one that I believe is a gravid female. Another thing I found is that some of the timbers I see have two "shelters" or places that they stay. I found the gravid female sunning on one rock at one area the first time that I observed her. The second time she was about 50 yards away from the first sighting. the third time,which was last night, she was in the same location as the second time. The other timber moves from one spot to another and now I cant find him. Is it common for timber rattlesnakes to have more than one "home"
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RE: timber rattlesnake study
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by Phobos on September 3, 2004
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Ahhh back to science and done with the "show" for now huh? Good snake behavior to study.
From what I've seen with a group I studied for 4 years. They have multipule "hides"; all would seem to be placed close to a game trail. They do have a home range of a few hundred square yards. It may be different in a southern population; I used a Northern Timbers.
Now a few questions for you regarding your study.
Are you sure that they are Timbers and not Canebrakes? Tell us why you know they are one or another.
How are you identifying each individual?
How long is each observation session?
What were the weather conditions and do you think that influences they selection process for that day?
How many weeks have you been observing?
What factors do you think they use in picking one spot or another?
What types of potiental prey did you notice that was in the area.
Al
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RE: timber rattlesnake study
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by AquaHerp on September 3, 2004
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Grab a copy of Bill Browns "Biology, Stautus, and Management of the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus): A Guide For Conservation. there is great info in here on the habitat usage of horridus. The habitat selection and usuage is seasonal and there are way too many variables to try and list these all here for you. I'd strongly recommend the booklet. There's a lot of infoe floating around on this animal. It has been a widely studied reptile as of late. I spent many years studying this animal myself and have boxes of notes and reprints, however, W.S. Brown's book mentioned above has much of this info in a nice neat little package.
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RE: timber rattlesnake study
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by bush_viper17 on September 3, 2004
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Hey phobos. I just want to get a general study for the rest of this summer and fall to find where they hibernate, and next summer get to the real work. I have seen canebrakes and timbers at the site. I usually find them out in cloudy weather moving around the rocks and in hot weather just sunning or hiding. I identify my snakes by looking for identification marks. Example one snake I found had grey eyes and the 23rd crossband was incomplete and the crossbands always ended with a round dot while others Ive seen ended with the line...so that snakes number is GE23ld(Grey Eyes 23 crossbands,,Line Dot)
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RE: timber rattlesnake study
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by Phobos on September 3, 2004
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Jeremy:
Good for you. That is a nice way to identify them. Why not put your camera to good use and have a photographic record too.
I commend your interest in such a study, there was no criticism intended. I posed those questions to get you to think about aspects of your study that you may not have thought of before. The same sort of suggestions/questions would be asked if you were doing this research for a college paper.
Al
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RE: timber rattlesnake study
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by bush_viper17 on September 3, 2004
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Thanks for answering my question. I love these snakes and hope to find some good things about them. I will post again later to tell about my findings.
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