Sunday morning Kelsey and I were on a mission to take more senior photos, which I will share soon. However, on our way through one of the pastures we ran across this:
Contrary to what many of you may know about rattlesnakes is that they’re very docile. Unlike, say the Southern Cottonmouth- of which there were plenty where I grew up. Those snakes will get very aggressive. The Rattler will sit and puff up but would sooner have us both go our separate ways.
They’ve been very plentiful here this summer.
This one was close to 4 feet long.
No one freak out- I had my 200mm lens on the camera so I wasn’t in danger of being struck. Plus, it was sitting there pretty quietly. If we got closer than its comfort, it would shake its rattles at us. Yes, that sound is a tiny bit disconcerting. Makes it sound heinous. And they can be if you get bit. It’s not pretty for the human or the animal.
In case you’re interested, rattlesnakes are the only poisonous snake in the state of South Dakota.
This snake made the third rattler we killed in a two day span this weekend, and the 9th one for the summer.
Yes, I took photos of the snake. Then I killed it by running it over. Wrong place, wrong time for the snake. I realize that all it wanted was some sun, and a meal- which it had just had recently. Did you notice the bulge in some of the photos above?
Better it be dead than bite one of the soon to be weanlings, with whom it was sharing a pasture at this point in time. And both us girls were without a knife, so we didn’t get to keep this set of rattles. Yes, we kill them and keep a trophy. Normally when we kill them, we cut the head off and bury it because reflex can still allow the snake to bite something.
This is probably more than any of you wanted to know about snakes, certainly rattlesnakes. But I wanted to share, because I was excited about getting the photos of it. I’ve wanted photos of the rattler for quite some time, and managed to finally be in the right place at the right time.
Happy Tuesday!
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Rattlers are always a fear for me. I don’t pay enough attention. We have a collection of rattlers that my husband collects as “trophies.”
We kill any rattle snakes we come accross as well. We’ve almost lost several cows and a horse to them just last year … also, last year we lost a dog go one (it was the 4th that dog had been bit!).
We also have a couple of non-lethal snakes that we run accross, some get rather big, and we happily drive around them and let them go their own way. We’re happy to have those ones to keep tabs on the rodent population and such.
But the rattle snakes we eliminate.
(nice photos btw!)
YIKES! I’m very girly when it comes to snakes & spiders, don’t like them one bit! Better off dead in my opinion!