Evening star., 1952-08-15
u. of Va. Scientists Tell
Of RuttIesnuke Studies
Reptiles Make Love and Engage
In Sportive Showing Matches
By Thomos R. Henry

In SPortIve ShovIng Matches
By Thomas R. Henry
MOUNTAIN LAKE, Va, Aug. 15.-
Rattlesnakes-both black and olive
yellow ones in this high corner of the
Alleghenies around the field biological
laboratory of the University of Virginia
are quite engaging reptiles to scientists
studying their ways of life.
They make love and mate. They en-
gage in sportive showing matches with
each other A family, although there
is no evidence of recognition of kin
ship, probably returns to the same den
every winter. Their range is quite
limited. They forage in irregular circles,
starting from some spot near their den
and returning to essentially the same
place. Compared to the harmless black
snakes of the same rocky mountainsides.
they are sluggish, rather lazy creatures.
1t now appears, according to DR.. Her.
bert G. Bowling, that an active male
rattler will move over a rough circle
of a mile and a mile and half in a
month"; seeking it's prey of rats, rabbits
and chipmunkS. Then it repeats es-
Sentially the same circle three or four
times before the froSts drive it indoors.
BY the time it starts its route over again
the small mammals on which it feeds
have returned.
Fangs for Food Getting.
The poison fangs of the rattler. DR..
Bowling points out, probably are in
tended purely for defense. With light
ning-like speed the reptile strikes its
prey. The small mammal lives at the
most only minute or SO. It may, how
ever, run for some distance before it dies.
The snake apparently follows it by it's
characteristic scent. Its highly un-
likely, DR.. Dowling says, that rattler
would eat anything which it was not
sure it had killed itself within a matter
of minutes. 1t can swallow an animal
five or six times the size of it's own
head. Despite some evidence of social
life under some circumstances each
rattler is a solitary hunter, living en-
tirely by its own wits.
It is a rather lazy animal. During
the heat OF the day it remains in the
cool of rock shelter, but comes out to
forage in late afternoon and evening. It
is unlikely that it hunts much after
dusk. since 1t depends on keen eyeSight
for accurate aim. Copperheads, observa-
tions by the University of Virginia SCI
entists and their students show, have
much the same habits. Females of both
species have the same food-gathering
habits but cover circles of smaller cir
cumference.
Evidence that the reptiles winter in
the same dens year after year still is
hot nv
. says. but there is high probability that
this is the case. This is due in part to
the relative scarcity of suitable dens
even among the tumbled boulders of
this wild countryside. The snake must
find crevaSSe in the rocks that enables
it to get below the frost line. Otherwise
there is no possibility that it could sur
vive the months of Information when it
eats nothing and probably does not
move. 1t may not actually be asleep.
"Necking" in the Spring.
Courtship and mating take place In
the first warm spring days when the
snakes emerge from their dens, not to
go into them again until forced by cold
weather. Courtship appears to be sort
of "necking," the male laying his fiat
head on the neck of the female. Choice
OF mate, however, is entirely up to the
latter. Rattlers often have been OBJ
served rearing up and pushing against
each other. This was long thought to
be part OF courtship procedure but it
now is interpreted as friendly game
The rearing snakes, it is believed, are
always males and there may be some
prestige involved in being the best
pusher.
The young of both rattlesnakes and
copperheads are born alive and probably
spend their first summer close to the
den. They must fend for themselves
from the first.
Closely associated with the rattlers in
this mountain area is the pilot snake"
black constructor which, the mountain
people believe, pilots" the venomous
reptiles back to their dens each winter.
This is due to the fact that in the fall
rattlers have been seen apparently fol-
lowing the black snakes. This. DR..
Bowling says probably is entirely illu-
sorry. The pilot snakes just are moving
faster They do, however, occupy the
same denS as the rattlers-perhaps not
from choice but because there is always
such a. scarcity of suitable places. They
are more active snakes, covering a circle
OF about three miles while the rattler is
1oraglng over one-mile circumference.
Inc pilot snakes kill their prey by coiling
around IL. They are egg layers The
university OF Virginia scientists have
found them to be quite easily tanned and
harmless