Livestream documents hundreds of rattlesnakes’ activity in northern Colorado
Jul 16, 2024, 5:19 PM | Updated: Jul 17, 2024, 1:43 pm
For those who aren’t uncomfortable at the very thought of snakes, there is now an opportunity to view hundreds, if not thousands, of prairie rattlesnakes writhing around at all hours of the day in northern Colorado.
As many as 2,000 rattlesnakes made a rocky habitat in an undisclosed location their home, and starting on May 17, California Polytechnic State University Bailey College of Science and Mathematics set up a livestream on both YouTube and RattleCam.org to keep an eye on the snakes at their mega-den. The community science project, dubbed Project RattleCam, was created to give scientists a prolonged glimpse into the snakes’ natural behavior. According to their website, their mission is to “study and raise awareness about rattlesnakes, their behavior and their importance in the ecosystem.”
Cal Poly biology professor and project lead Emily Taylor remarks that rattlesnakes largely remain a mystery, as researchers rarely get the chance to observe the reptiles relaxed in their habitat for a long period of time. This initiative will help to fill in the gaps, especially given that Taylor noted that this is one of the largest dens they know of.
It’s likely that the area was chosen by the plethora of snakes due to its rocky geologic features, which provide shelter from the elements and a place to hide out of the view of predators.
The group, known as a rhumba, consists almost entirely of females. Hundreds of rattlesnakes may soon become thousands, with many of the females expecting. Taylor estimates that the newcomers will join the den sometime in August. The males will rejoin in September after having spent the summer hunting in the lower country.
The livestream can be accessed not only by the scientists and researchers studying the creatures, but by the general public as well. The public is invited to help note their observations of the rattlers, particularly snake interactions, reactions to events and other animals, in the form here and in the YouTube live chat.
Destigmatizing the species is an intended byproduct of the study, as Taylor noted to the Cal Poly News, “…members of the public can watch wild rattlesnakes behaving as they naturally do, helping to combat the biased imagery we see on television shows of rattling, defensive and stressed snakes interacting with people who are provoking them.”
For those who are interested in the project but perhaps don’t have time to watch the livestream, Project RattleCam regularly updates their Instagram account, which documents noteworthy happenings such as Magpies taking off with baby snakes, the “baby bumps,” on the pregnant snakes and the snakes trapping and drinking rainwater.
Project RattleCam has had a camera stationed similarly at a smaller den in California for three years over the summers. The Golden State’s livestream went live for this year on the 17th as well.
The livestream will run until October, when it will be shut down due to cooling weather.
