Monday, August 7, 2017

Southern Pacific Rattlesnake - Redlands 2017

I got a call from a friend Saturday morning indicating they had a rattlesnake in their yard and asking if I wanted to come get it. I had my daughter and grandgirls visiting and thought the grandgirls would enjoy it, so I grabbed my snake sticks (a gift from my daughter many Christmases ago) and we went over. 

My friend directed us to a metal gate resting against a block wall and the snake was curled up under the gate. 
Southern Pacific rattlesnake
It was a Southern Pacific Rattlesnake, a subspecies of the western rattlesnake. They can be quite nasty and have a real toxic venom. But this particular snake was very mellow. When I grabbed it with the snake stick 

it made no effort to strike or to even get away. We placed it in a large plastic container and then transported it over to a local canyon and let it go. 
In the plastic container.
It is the first rattlesnake I've seen locally in a while and I think the first rattlesnake my grandgirls have seen in the wild. It made for a great start to our Saturday.
My grandgirls with the snake right before we released it. 

2 comments:

  1. Fun experience for the girls, and I'm glad the rattler got to go find a new home in the wild.

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  2. I'm probably not going to add this to my list of things to do with the grandkids, but I'm impressed by your grandgirls' comfort around reptiles.

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