Herpetofauna - One Life's List

Timber Rattlesnake
Crotalus horridus

St. Louis Co., Missouri. April 20, 1987.
 


 

 I found my first Timber Rattlesnake in a tree, twenty five feet off the ground.  Along the Missouri river are bluffs that run for miles, and in  places there are good den sites for rattlesnakes to hole up during the winter.  The trick is to be there when the snakes are emerging, which in Missouri would be around the middle of April.

So there I was, in the right place at the right time, scanning the ledges along the bluffs, and the ground at the base.  Alonzo, my friend and frequent herping companion, spotted a Black Rat Snake in a tree growing up from the base of the bluffs, and as we were looking at it, he spotted a Timber Rattler in the next tree over!  The second photo shows Alonzo clambering upward towards the snake, which I have highlighted with a red arrow underneath.  He managed to get the rattler out of the tree, and we spent quite a bit of time examining the creature.  It only rattled once, and briefly, doing its best to crawl away from us.  This was our first rattlesnake of any kind!

The photo directly below is of a large female horridus from southern Illinois, which was my pal Steve Coogan's first Timber Rattler.  He was a very happy man that day!
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