Dozens of them crawl and slide on top of each other. And now there is a webcam so that anyone can watch them over the Internet at any time, even at night.
A “mega den” with up to 2,000 rattlesnakes is not many people’s favorite show. But it is a real spectacle for scientists and other snake enthusiasts, whose observations are helping to expand knowledge about these unusual reptiles whose bad reputation is undeserved..
The remote location, on private land in northern Colorado, sits on a hillside filled with rock crevices where snakes can stay warm and hide from predators.
“This is a large den for rattlesnakes. It is one of the largest we know of.”said Emily Taylor, a biology professor at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) who leads the Project RattleCam research, on Tuesday.
Cal Poly researchers installed the webcam in May, based on knowledge they gained by placing a webcam in a burrow in California. The exact location in Colorado is being kept secret to discourage snake lovers — or snake haters — from messing with the snakes, Taylor said.
Colorado rattlesnakes, whose habitat is at high elevation, They take refuge in the burrow during the winter and emerge in the spring for a short season of activity compared to southwestern rattlesnakes.At this time of year, only the pregnant females are in the burrow, while the males and other females move to nearby low areas.
The babies will be born in August. They are called viper cubs and, unlike almost all other reptiles, they are not born from eggs, but are born alive.
Also unlike other snakes, Rattlesnake mothers care for their young, protecting them from predators and sheltering them with their bodies. And sometimes they even care for the young of other snakes..
“Rattlesnakes are very good mothers. People don’t know that.”Taylor says.
A webcam helps scientists observe snake behavior without interfering. Meanwhile, people watching online alert scientists to events they might have missed or provide clues with their own knowledge of the local environment.
“It is a real group effort, a community scientific effort that we scientists could not do alone”Taylor says.
And every now and then, there is drama.
Red-tailed hawks hover overhead, waiting for an opportunity to swoop down and grab their lunch. On one occasion, a magpie — a relative of crows with black, white and blue plumage and a long tail — caught a baby rattlesnake.
When it rains, rattlesnakes curl up and collect water to drink from the cups they form with their bodies.
Taylor expects activity to increase after the babies are born, and even more so in September when snakes return from surrounding areas in preparation for winter.
Rattlesnakes have a reputation for being terrifying and menacing. But the webcam shows they are social animals that are not typically aggressive, Taylor said.
“I try to stand up for the underdog and show people that rattlesnakes have this other side that is really worthy of our admiration,” Taylor said.