RATTLESNAKE ROOKERY

      Somewhere in the forests of Pennsylvania, a live camera is focused on a secluded and protected timber rattlesnake rookery nestled in a cascade of sun-drenched outcroppings of lichen-covered boulders, fallen logs and carpets of dead, fallen leaves; shelter and sun for snakes in one place.  That live camera is sponsored by "Pennsylvania Rattlecam Livestream".  

     For a little bit every day since the end of August of this year, through that camera and our home computer screen, I was thrilled to watch, with great interest, up to seven timber rattlesnakes at once sunning themselves in the sunlight on sun-heated boulders.  Those cold-blooded rattlesnakes were all females lying in the heat of the sun to promote their embryos' growth inside themselves.  Rattlesnakes don't lay eggs, but give live birth.            

     While pregnant  for a whole summer, female rattlesnakes don't search for prey rodents.  They only lie in the sunlight each sunny day.  They emerge from shelters between boulders about mid-morning and retreat back into those sheltering crevices around the end of each sunny afternoon.  Female timber rattlesnakes finally give birth to 4 to 14 young, per brood, during September.    

     I saw two broods of baby timber rattlesnakes at this rookery, via the live camera and our computer.  One brood of at least six young was born around September 9, and another brood of at least four was born about September 14, both broods in this year.  They seemed large, compared to the sizes of the mothers.  I read mother rattlers stay with their young for one or two weeks.     

     The cute, little young are small replicas of their parents, and act like them, too.  They have timber rattlesnake color patterns, poison sacs, vertically-slitted pupils, one button on their "rattle", and move around like their parents.  I could see their tongues regularly flickering in and out to taste particles in the air, like their parents' tongues do.  And they are alert, right at birth.

     While the pregnant females were coiled in the sunlight, I had to admire the beauty of their color patterns, and their rattles on the ends of their tails.  And I saw the poison sac on each side of the back of their heads.  Some females were dark, with just a little pattern showing: Others were a pleasant brown and yellow.  But all those handsome snakes were well camouflaged, which protects them on boulders, logs and fallen leaves.

     Timber rattlesnakes are ambush hunters, lying along rocks and fallen logs.  Rodents moving across a forest floor, go around a rock or log, rather than climbing over top of them and being exposed to hawks, owls, gray foxes and other predators.  But when they go around objects, they might blunder into a timber rattlesnake that will reach out with poison fangs that quickly kill the rodents.

     I have seen timber rattlesnakes "in the scales" in Pennsylvania through the years.  But anyone can see that kind of snake, up close and personal, through a live camera and a computer.  Again, I have to admire timber rattlesnakes because they are so attractive, and elegant.  They only want to lie coiled in peace.  They don't want to bother anyone, or be bothered.  I guess they are most happy when they are left alone in their sheltered retreats.  Furthermore, timber rattlesnakes in Pennsylvania are protected by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.  

     Some other timber rattlesnake facts include, during summer, males and non-pregnant females lie in ambush in cool, shadowy woods, while pregnant females lie on sun-heated boulders all summer.  Female timber rattlesnakes give birth every two to three years, so they can recover weight and stamina between broods.  But these snakes can live more than twenty years.  And the genders of these snakes is not controlled by air temperature, as in some egg-laying reptiles, but by males' sperm.  

     The timber rattlesnakes I saw by live camera and a computer were beautiful and stately.  This species has a life history as intriguing as any other kind of wild plant or animal.  All these snakes want, like all wildlife, is to be left alone.