Snake hunting and snake festivals threaten the reptiles, but habitat loss is much more of a problem. Most of what has been learned about timber rattler ecology dates from the past 20 years, thanks to advances in electronic monitoring. Biologists implant snakes with radio transmitters and study their movements. Rattlers are not as dangerous as most people think. Of the nearly 8,000 venomous snakebites each year in the United States, only a dozen or so result in death.
Bites often occur when people try to catch or kill snakes.
For more information on this topic, see our Additional Sources page and explore the Archives of Smithsonian Magazine. Abstract of an article by Scott Weidensaul, originally published in the December 1997 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. This site produced by BlairLake New Media .