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WDB non textbook habits
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by buzzard on October 1, 2006
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Around here the WDB is rarely seen, and you can't even find them if you go looking, but every year sometime between Sept.8 and 20th when you least expect it, with no significant weather change, and sometimes after a full moon, they will swarm like a horror movie, crossing town streets and bridges, for only a night or two and then disappear and never seen again...This puzzles me. I am lead to believe the vipers bask in the last hours of the sun, and then hunt prey by darkness. Do they only do it once a year????????//
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RE: WDB non textbook habits
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by Cro on October 1, 2006
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Barry,
The behavior you are seeing in Western Diamond-Backed Rattlesnakes is common in many rattlesnakes this time of year.
Several things are happning at the same time.
The snakes are returning from summer feeding areas to denning sites which could be several miles distant, and they are breeding and probably releasing phermones in the air that others of their kind are attracted to, and the temperatures have finally cooled enough for them to come out on the roads in late afternoon, early evening without being cooked.
Sometimes the same behavior is seen in the spring as they leave dens and travel toward sumer feeding areas.
Male snakes are more likely to travell away from the denning sites. The female snakes tend to stay much closer to the dens year-round.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: WDB non textbook habits
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by Cro on October 1, 2006
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It can be an amazing thing to see.
Hope you can convince the folks in your town to drive around them.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: WDB non textbook habits
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by buzzard on October 1, 2006
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That was the sad part I had to witness also, I actually picked up some injured ones to try to evaluate them, and then came to my senses, and decided they were probably more dangerous than a healthy specimen....Most of the motorists will turn around to aim for the head the second time
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