We relocate prairie rattlers all season, should start soon up here. No need to kill them all, we need some rats and mice taken care of.

For giggles, I thought I would look at the human population in the region and found a map of the whole state. Pretty much all of east Texas has stayed stable or lost population and some areas have a goodly amount of loss. I was thinking an increase in human traffic, errr vehicular traffic associated with more humans, more roads, etc. might be taking a toll on the snakes and while they do get roadkilled, that doesn't appear to be the issue at all.

https://usafacts.org/data/topics/pe...Date=2022-01-01&startDate=1999-01-01

So I did some more digging with your time frame in mind. Apparently, the Timber Rattlers were already in decline 25 years ago and researchers were trying to figure out why and there are several suggestions, but this isn't only about Timber Rattlers, but snakes in general. Then I found this that is really interesting. Snake fungal disease (SFD). This news article calls it both a fungus and a virus. It was discovered in Timber Rattlers in 2006.
https://www.cbs19.tv/article/tech/s...501-6be783e5-837c-473d-9565-a07f504ffc1c

This info is from the big heads in DC talking about SFD. Apparently, it is considered an emerging pathogen across the US that was first discovered in the US in the 1980s (in Illinois).
https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/diseases/snake-fungal-disease

A 3 year study ending in 2021 study found it present in over 15% (27 of 176) of the snakes examined from east Texas, but somehow researchers decided 1:10 has the pathogen.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffunb.2023.1064939/full

The disease itself isn't consider very fatal, but in reading various literature, it sounds like it works as another stress factor, weakening the snake's health such that they end up dying from something else more readily. So it would appear to be a comorbidity factor.

Also interesting is that it is thought to be much more widespread than it is, but not a lot of people are looking into it, or not doing geographical wide scale testing. It sounds like most of the studies that find it are studies being conducted after there is a known problem, but first the problem has to be known. Lots of animal deaths go unobserved. It is seems like only when the population noticeably changes that they will look for the cause.

Yep. This was a dangerous place because of the rattlesnakes. The rattlesnakes for hogs trade was a good one for my ranch.

I haven't noticed any decline of snakes in my area of East Texas (Deep East Texas) but I represent a small sample.

In my area only the Timber Rattler and Pygmy Rattler exist. Neither in great numbers and VERY much localized in certain areas/habitats.

Copperheads are everywhere and the most common venomous snake by far. Cottonmouth next in line (with good habitat).

All of the common non-venomous snakes seem to have steady populations in the 40 years I've been here.

Feral hog populations have exploded over the years.....but I can't tell that they have any effect on the snake population (on my property). Other wildlife.....YES, but not snakes.

It’s not a new concept. In the 1930’s, feral hogs were put on Santa Catalina Island to help control the island’s rattlesnake populations.

Well, they did bring in pigs to help the Catalina Island rattlesnake issue (and/or for sport hunting). They also brought in goats and bison for various reasons that were also a threat to the snakes.

The experiment was a failure. After about 60 years and various studies conducted, efforts reversed to get rid of the hogs and starting in 1990. Goats and bison were apparently shortlisted as well. In the end, the rattlesnakes remained, but the pigs, goats, and bison were now the ones humans wanted off the island.
https://www.islapedia.com/index.php?title=Pigs:_Santa_Catalina_Island

The above reference also has a news clip from the 1891 Avalon (town on the island) newspaper talking about the hogs and other livestock breaking through the fence that protected the town from pasturage of the animals (sort of sounds like Jamestown building a stockade and New York building a wall, to keep out feral hogs).

One of the really interesting aspects of this experiment is that contrary to mainland lore of rattlesnakes not rattling out of fear of being eaten by a pig that hears it, the island rattlesnakes rattled more, louder, are more prone to striking and tend to inject more venom. This response isn't just to the pigs, but also to the other threats like deer, goats, bison, etc. The rattlesnakes turned on the aggression and have survived just fine. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-rattlesnakes-california-santa-catalina-island.html

This article mentions hogs on the island from at least the 1800s and possibly as early as the 1500s.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1381283

The only reason the predation has not been quantified yet is because neither are in short supply state wide. I do know that this was a place inundated with rattlesnakes and now they are few and far between. Due to the nature of where I’m at and the protection from any development, the only thing that has changed is an endless supply of feral hogs. They certainly don’t care about getting bit by one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ccOC7mN8Sw&pp=ygUVaG9nIGVhdHMgcmF0dGxlc25ha2Ug[/video]

I don't know. We have rattlesnakes and plenty of pigs. Just killed a copperhead tonight in camp in Montague. If I don't go looking for them, I normally don't see them. We have guy that hunts them too and will catch 50+ a year.

Duck man, that’s hard to understand. Neither I or my neighbors South of Bowie have seen a snake of any kind in years.

My lease is south of Brackettville. We are high fenced and I have not seen a hog in person or on camera last season. But I have seen 2 snakes. One out in the field I saw crossing a road last March and this one at my camp area. He was 4 feet from the container door where I store the jeep. I had my snake boots on and walked up on him. It made my heart pound really fast.

That is odd. Here is a pic I took on March 31. This is my first copperhead of the year. It was on FM 677 between Forestburg and St Jo.

My old lease we were covered in hogs and snakes.

^^^^

And a 'Broadband' at that. We have few where I live.....but mostly the 'Southern'.



Beautiful coloring on yours.


The most recent 'Southern' on my place was exceptionally drab colored. Most are very Tan and Copper colored.

Well, that is interesting. Most of the ones I see up here would be broadbands. I have never seen the drab version that I can recall.

I have killed and disposed i or 2 each year over the last 12 years. Last years I found out how easy it was to preserve the skin and I now have a new purpose and look forward to seeing them as often as possible. Belts and hat bands.

I killed my first copperhead last night. Wife saw it while we were lettings dogs piss before bed. This will be our 4th spring where were at now, between Terrell/Kaufman...I killed 26 copperheads each of the first two years, but noticed the age structure dropped in year 2. last year I killed 13 and again age dropped. Last night's snake was a small one. We have far too many woods around us, and our landscaping is a snake's paradise. We will never get rid of them but I'm hoping to have the kills down to 5-10 a year
1 dog bitten in 3 years, been lucky

I relocate rattle snakes in 2-3 pieces, there are other snakes to handle rodents. Have 3 friends that were bitten by buzz snakes and it isn't a fun ordeal and one nearly lost some fingers.

Got surprised by this one yesterday he was under the blind

That's a "red and yellow, kill a fellow"

Oh boy, that's not a good sight!

I've only seen one Coral Snake in my time in East Texas (also in Nac County).

Plenty of them in Central Texas where I grew up. Pretty snakes.

Grew up in east Texas and lived in Nac for about five years, and have never seen one in the wild.

I’ve never seen one in the wild either but would like to. Beautiful snakes.

I love copperheads. They are beautiful snakes. Always gets a pass if I see one.