Changing Rattlesnake Habits

I recently heard that rattlesnakes are starting to change their habits due to the exploding hog population. Someone said that the hogs love to eat the snakes and they are starting to not rattle to reveal themselves. So basically instead of a snake letting you know where they are, now they will just bite in silence. This could be a very scary situation! Any thoughts on this?

Got home last night and there was about a four foot long rattlesanke laying in my driveway. I had also heard that they were not rattling because of hogs, and since we are in an area with a good population of hogs, I decided to jack with it before dispatching it. I got a shovel and pushed the snake and it did coil bit did not rattle. I kept poking at it with the shovel and it never did rattle. I finally wacked him in the head with the shovel and he let out a quick (maybe 2 sec rattle) and went silent again. I then cut off his head and that was that. My daughter who was in the truck asked for his rattles to take to school today and I cut them off for her. I then put the headless snake on top of the trash before I put I put it out. I sure wish I could be there when the garbage man pulls open that can.

I've heard the same thing. A friend of mine was bitten a few months ago and never heard a rattle

That is the rumor. I just haven't had any experiences yet.

My oldest son related a story to me last week about walking out the door of his home and hearing a rattler across the road about thirty yards from the his door. Two of his cats were harassing it and it was coiled and rattling very loudly. He retrieved a weapon and killed the snake and sent pics to family members along with a suggestion if they had snakes and didn't have a cat to get one.

We go and catch rattlesnakes mainly in the spring and again in the fall. Our experience has been that the outside temperature has a lot to do with the rattling. In warm weather snakes are alert and active and tend to rattle more. When the weather is cool snakes can literally zone out completely and be stepped on and not rattle. Snakes also zone out when they are close to shedding their skins or digesting a big recent meal. I do not believe that the hogs have anything to do with the lack of rattling. Most snakes tend to crawl off when they feel the vibration of the ground by an approaching animal. That is how they sense their prey and/or foe. If a snake has the chance to crawl off it will do so. If it is cornered it will try to intimidate by rattling and puffing up, raising its body. If a snake does not feel threatened by a person or animal in close proximity, it will not rattle but just lay there. That is not new behaviour and has nothing to do with trying ot outsmart hogs.

I caught a rattlesnake as it was crossing the road on the lease Sunday. It was in the low 90's and I had to grab his tail and drag him back into the road before he got into the tall grass. My brother pulled up and pinned him with a hook. The snake did not rattle until we picked him up, I guess he did not like the 4 wheeler ride to camp. I have a video of him at camp but not sure how to post on here.

I keep hearing the same thing, ran into two last week dove hunting. One ratted the other did not.

I don't see how that can be and find it kind of hard to beloeve. I don't claim to be a snake expert but i'd bet it was because of cooler weather.

I ran over about a four foot rattler last night on the way home from the lease. He rattled and kept rattling after he was dead. Nerves I guess.

so....

rattlesnakes are changing habits because hogs are eating them?

it seems like the only snakes that would know about hogs eating them, are the ones that have been eaten by hogs... (i.e. the dead ones)

how do the snakes who have not been eaten by hogs know about this? snake monthly?

IF is s true that fewer rattlesnakes are rattiling (IF!), it's would not be a matter of them learning to be quiet any more than it was a matter of a Tree Moth learning to look like a piece of tree bark. It would be Darwinism at work. The order of natural selection. If snakes that tend to rattle less have a higher survival rate, there are more of them breeding to pass that trait down the line. The rattling trait would just die out in time. It could be a localized thing due to some sort of external influence like hog predation. The trait could show up pretty quick if the noisy ones are getting killed and the quiet ones aren't.

Not an expert but I have caught several thousand of them and deal with them almost daily when it gets warm. Most will not rattle until they feel threatened and others will start rattling long before you see them, I've no explanation for that. Out roundup is in March when it's cool and I've handled several in the pit that would not rattle at all, but let it warm and they come to life. I personally think the whole idea of rattlers changing they ways is complete bunk.

I dunno, but it seems then if one has a hog problem and the critters are sneaky that the solution would be to get a rattle or two and call them in. One way to test the theory.

hats off to you sir!


alot braver than i am. it is for that reason only that i'm grateful we have hogs on our s.tx ranch

I've caught 2 in the last month that didn't rattle... I could harldy MAKE them rattle after I caught them. I thought it was kinda odd...
Temp each day was above 70 (plenty warm enough).

I like the Darwin theory and it makes sense that if the ones that rattle get eaten, it wouldn't take long for them to evolve.

I agree with you. But no way am I messing with a rattlebug to find out! LOL!

It supposedly has to do with evolving. Rattling is a born behavior. Some rattle more than others. If all the ones that rattle a lot are being killed by people, hogs whatever, then they are not passing that along to their offspring. If the ones that don't rattle much are living longer and making more offspring, than they are passing that along to their offspring. It is just evolution. Now whether or not it is happening is open to debate.

I've heard this I don't know how many times, and remember reading it somewhere in an article, but can't remember know where it was.

I call it B.S. and something someone who wanted to fill up writing space came up with.

Hogs I'm sure can smell snakes and don't care if they can hear one rattle or not, and they can do a fairly good job of uncovering one being a mini bulldozer, especially when they run across a few hiding in a den, as hogs are opportunist and will eat anything that resembles food.

I've grown up in South Texas and can tell you that rattlesnakes don't always rattle, and I've heard that all my life, and some do, and some don't, but it isn't just because of the hogs.

You guys watch too many westerns. Rattle Snakes don't always rattle, even before the hogs exploded. It's always been that way.

+ 1

cool weather will slow em down as well..be carefull//

I'm pretty sure they cease on the rattling because it's getting colder. One of the guys I hunted with last year caught one that was hanging out under some steel and it didn't rattle a bit. It had also made itself almost flat (this was a first for me) to, i guess, get more body contact on the ground for warmth.

Two years ago i was hunting in Bracketville for spring turkey and a few of the guys killed about a 6' rattler that didn't rattle at all. It was kinda cool that evening and was near a road...perhaps trying to warm up.

Its not cold enough yet to slow down the rattling. I think there may be something to this . The only reason I say that is I pulled my 4 wheeeler up next to a 5ftr lastweek and it never buzzed and we are covered with hogs. I have also made the mistake of sitting down next to one a few yrs ago on a cold morning and it did buzz like hell. Gave me the scare of my life.

This reminded me of a few years back one extremely (rare) cold south Texas morning me and a buddy were driving down a narrow farm to market road headed toward Bateville, and I kept noticing on the shoulder of the road what looked like cow pies all along the edge of the pavement, with several different sizes and some really large one's, and then we slowed down to look closer and saw they were rattlesnakes coiled up on the warm roadside.

Talk about getting the chills when I got out to open the gate when we got to the ranch.

I dont but the hog s making them quit rattling thing at all and here is why.

If a hog finds one, it gets eaten. There would be very few near misses for the snake to possibly learn from. And it would be a learned behavior. Since baby rattlers dont follow momma around the first year or 2, but make it entirely on their own, they could'nt learn to be quiet from her because a hog is near.

And from what I understand, a snake cant tell a hog from a deer from a cow from a man. Their vision is supposed to be about like looking thru 2 window screens at one time.

Maybe it's what they talk about when they are in those dens!

You know when one of them that had a near death experience gets up in front of the others and tells their story!

I assume you guys are talking about Diamondbacks. Over here, it's Timber Rattlers. They very rarely rattle, hot or cool weather. I've killed many on my property, and the only time I have heard one rattle is when I messed with it. I wish they would rattle. They are mighty good eating. I have come across a couple Diamondbacks while turkey hunting in Texas, but neither of them rattled.