Join me as we hike along a timber rattlesnake's migratory route from their overwintering=pklkmkknj den to high atop a mountainous ridge. / marklotterhand Music: Our Way by Roman P [Artlist]
Great video Mark. You really had to climb to see the rattlesnake area here. It's amazing all the color variations of the timber rattlesnakes. They really blend in with the leaves. Fanatastic job. Bruce
I really enjoyed this. I live in northeast Tennessee near the NC/ TN state line and have been observing Timber Rattlesnakes since moving back to the area in 1974. These are probably my favorite reptile species. It breaks my heart to see the declines in local populations since moving back to the area. Technically our Timbers are " protected " , however the laws are never enforced. I take photos of those that I encounter and have been rewarded with encounters with several snakes on consecutive years. These are truly amazing animals and so misunderstood. Thanks for what you do.
Doug thanks for reaching out! You live in one of the most beautiful areas in the East and I hope someday to encounter horridus high up in the mountains in the southern Appalachians. Here in the Northeast laws are enforced protecting timber rattlesnakes, although too late for a swath of their former range. Their greatest threats up this way is habitat loss and snake fungal disease.
Thanks Peter! There are asome areas that still have healthy number of timber rattlesnakes and it is encouraging considering it wasn't all that long ago there was a bounty for them throughout the Northeast .
You might possibly have the best eye site than anyone else. Great job, love the videos and the time lapse footage. Keep researching your doing a great job!!
Thank you very much for the great info! I LOVE these snakes. I do all I can to educate fearful humans on how awesome vilified animals really are, and I appreciate your video and hard work for educating me more about these beauties!
good video Mark,I live near Clinch Mt. in Mendota Va. People here used to kill them all the time here and the population has declined drastically here.But now seem to be making a comeback.Thanks for educational videos like this to help people to better understand this beautiful snake.A balance of nature is a must.
Tena thanks and I couldn't agree more. Well before TH-cam, I watched nature documentaries as a kid just as everyone else from my generation and the one before and without them to educate and stimulate my budding interest in the natural world, I'm not sure if we would even be having this conversation.
Mark, you videos are so well made. I am so impressed by the footage you get and the different angles. You have a wealth of knowledge and I am glad you are sharing it here. I hope you get to that $1000 for the rattlesnakes.
Incredible video, it is so well done! I was lucky enough to find my lifer timbers this year in the Hudson Valley, in-combat. Where they are has a great population, but a lot of the land has been created into neighborhoods unfortunately. Anyways, great video, I can’t wait to see what you continue to put out!
Thank you Riley and congratulations on your in-combat find! The Hudson Valley/Highlands does have a good population of horridus and I enjoy visiting the area, but you are right there is so much human encouragement. Thankfully, there is some protected land in the form of several fairly large parks.
Youre going into the parts of the woods of the northeast that i avoid for this exact reason. I am always interested in where the snakes are though, bc there are alot in new york. You've got guts lol, im not a snake person at all. I would never kill them or even get close to them but I'm always looking out when I'm hiking. I think its been since we found a copperhead in my aunts house in New Jersey when I was a kid.. it was just hanging out and found a way in i guess. Awesome videos!
Thank you. I am glad you have some respect for them, despite not being their biggest fan and it sounds like it hasn't prevented you from enjoying the outdoors. You are certainly doing the right thing by being aware of your surroundings while out hiking.
I’m a hunter in southern WV. I haven’t seen a timber in a few years. Their numbers are low I hear from the DNR. Copperheads , now that’s a different story lol. I see them often where I hunt.
Diamondbacks are moving here , that time of year, Sweetwater Tx , we own several thousand acres, we run cattle and farm . Very seldom do we have a run in with a snake. And I’ll add THAT OUR LAND IS NOT HUNTED, for snakes . WORLDS LARGEST ROUNDUP IS HERE IN SWEETWATER, but none of them come off us, Disgusting to go see that garbage, there still claiming the venom that’s milked is used for research. WE KNOW FOR A FACT THATS NOT TRUE.
Thank you for your reply! You are to be commended. I suspect your attitude is not the prevailing one in Sweetwater..which is sad. I visited Sweetwater a couple of years ago, and was intrigued by the west Texas landscape and coming from the Northeast, the level of hospitality was refreshing. I think Sweetwater is worth more than being the place where the largest rattlesnake roundup in the world occurs. I have ideas of how the roundup could be phased into something more educational..but still entertaining and most importantly, still generate money for the town.
There was a guy at the hawkwatch right over the border in NJ from Pennsylvania. He had a background with Fish and Wildlife in New Hampshire I believe.. I mentioned the thing in PA where people can take a venomous snake home with them as a pet or whatever you would call it. He didn't believe me. Next time that I saw him he said that he had read about this practice in Pennsylvania and that it was terrible.
Thanks for sharing Dave. I think most people would be surprised that you can keep a "Noah's Ark" worth of exotic wildlife in roughly half the states. Some are responsible pet owners involved in conservation, others for their own personal desire, and some of course involved in the illegal black market pet trade.
With the advances in snake style cameras that are not much bigger then a pencil and can be steered deep inside of area being inspected you could wait until mid summed and really inspect some of these dens which would be most interesting and revealing. I for one would love to see this done very carefully as not to disturb the habatat.
Indeed! Most of my recent videos have actually included footage using trail cams set up at den sights and baking areas. One of my trail cameras captured long-tailed weasel predation on timber rattlesnakes while they were hibernating. I was completely unaware of such predation, but it now offers more insight into the life history of the timber rattlesnake.
I have helped out with a Timber Rattlesnake study in Missouri. There the migration is just the opposite. The animals move down from the dens to the wetter lowlands to hunt. Of course, MO hills are small compared to the Andirondacks. What are those timbers primary food and water source up on a high ridge in NY? I live in the Northern Rockies, so I have no clue about the ecosystem there.
Thanks for sharing. Initial migration for most horridus is to migrate up from their hibernaculum to more exposed basking areas near/at ridge lines or mountain summits. Similar to your MO observations some timbers then move down to lower elevations to fields and along wetlands but a large percentage of all cohorts still remain at higher elevations. At these higher elevations it is well forested and support plenty of their favorite prey such as white-footed mice, chipmunks, and gray squirrels. They probably consume a decent amount of birds as well at the basking sites/birthing rookeries. I have observed a few species of song birds frequently flitting about low to the ground in scrub oak within inches of rattlesnakes. Water is prevalent, often in the form of mountain run-off and weekly rain. For the most part summer droughts are short lived and even during NY driest summers, dew still forms every morning.
Under the microscope they are considered the same species, but even Charles Darwin noted that species are fluid (i.e., speciation). Canebrakes and "mountain" timbers seem to be taking different evolutionary paths so to speak, similar to the common ancestor that was recently shared with cottonmouths and copperheads for example (and millions of other examples). There will be no fixed point in time to say, that a canebrake/mountain timber are a race, subspecies or perhaps their own species someday, just as there was not specific moment in history that Homo sapiens sapiens came into existence.
I am curious about how the snakes that leave the den early and get caught out in a late spring cold snap with snow deal with the elements. Any i ideas Mark?
Melvin, good question. Along timber rattlesnake migration/egress routes there are usually partially buried rock slides that the snakes can seek refuge during spring cold snaps. They go deep enough to escape the occasional frosty spring night. I refer to these areas as staging areas. Some of these staging areas can even be confused with den pockets themselves especially if they are close to a known den and it can take many years to determine if it is a den pocket or a staging area. Most rattlesnakes are not up to the exposed basking sites until May, where the cap rocks maintain enough warmth that even during a freak cold snap, say a low of 30 degrees, under a slap of granite it will still stay just above freezing for hours (and May nights are relatively short in NY) Overall, excessive heat poses a greater threat to the snakes than the cold.
That is certainly a backup option, but so far protecting NH dens has had positive results and there may fortunately be a few more rattlesnakes than originally thought just 10 years ago...possible comeback from dens that were originally though extirpated.
I certainly don't take enough measures Dawn. I have had it twice, the first time really bad. I suppose these days, I do get more of a noticeable itch when one becomes embedded for several hours (well before the bacterium can be transmitted).
I live in PA I catch and release timber rattlesnakes. I do not kill them. I want the hunting in Pa to stop. It should be catch photo and release if you must touch the snakes, but not allowed to touch or harass a snake 3 foot or less. I have found 2 den sites and have learned a lot from you. Email me tfisherman63@gmail.com I would like to talk
How much do you make 1000.00 seem cheep for a cause you should cover your costs but not make a living off of a few balls hit words so if you you really care about it then all the money should be for that cause
I'm not sure what you are implying. I have not made a cent, and $1k for me at least is a big chunk of change. If or when I start making any appreciable income, I plan on donating more than my promised grand and not to mention, I went to Sweetwater TX roundup producing a video... traveling from the Northeast, paying for three other people (my hired help basically), which as you can imagine, even being as frugal as possible ended up being quite expensive.
Those damn Rattlesnake roundups are the worst. Sweetwater should be ashamed. Advocates for Snake Preservation do what they are able, but it seems to be a loosing battle. Maybe one day the atrocity will end, even if it is Federally mandated, Texas surely will not. Nothing more than animal cruelty, for Sweetwater profit. Disguising and heartbreaking the way the poor snakes are treated. It must end.
You summed it up perfectly. I do have hope that Sweetwater will end someday at least in its current form. Change is slow in the area of the country, but major shifts towards human equality and environmental awareness that has unfolded over the decades in the US inevitably bumps rural West Texas towards a shared future.
![[UNCUT] "บอสณวัฒน์" แฉ! แหล่งซุกเงินแก๊งบอส ขยันผิดที่ไม่กี่ปีก็เข้าคุก l คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ l17ต.ค.67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BL56qIfXYZM/mqdefault.jpg)
![[DRIP] ‘BILLIONAIRE’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m0eXQD0gIeE/mqdefault.jpg)
Great video Mark. You really had to climb to see the rattlesnake area here. It's amazing all the color variations of the timber rattlesnakes. They really blend in with the leaves. Fanatastic job.
Bruce
Thank you. Timber rattlesnake can live in rough, but very scenic topography! As rattlesnakes go, timbers vary most out of any species.
I really enjoyed this. I live in northeast Tennessee near the NC/ TN state line and have been observing Timber Rattlesnakes since moving back to the area in 1974. These are probably my favorite reptile species. It breaks my heart to see the declines in local populations since moving back to the area. Technically our Timbers are " protected " , however the laws are never enforced. I take photos of those that I encounter and have been rewarded with encounters with several snakes on consecutive years. These are truly amazing animals and so misunderstood. Thanks for what you do.
Doug thanks for reaching out! You live in one of the most beautiful areas in the East and I hope someday to encounter horridus high up in the mountains in the southern Appalachians. Here in the Northeast laws are enforced protecting timber rattlesnakes, although too late for a swath of their former range. Their greatest threats up this way is habitat loss and snake fungal disease.
What a great video. Seeing all those snakes is very encouraging! Great work! Thank you.
Thanks Peter! There are asome areas that still have healthy number of timber rattlesnakes and it is encouraging considering it wasn't all that long ago there was a bounty for them throughout the Northeast .
You might possibly have the best eye site than anyone else. Great job, love the videos and the time lapse footage. Keep researching your doing a great job!!
I am humbled. Thank you!
I love all Rattlesnakes
Just keep getting better, and better! Always a treat to see a new video!
Thanks Dawn..I have been eager to put together another horridus video!
Somebody's gotta do it?😉
Wow your fantastic! Keep at it man!
Too kind! Thanks so much.
Thank you very much for the great info! I LOVE these snakes. I do all I can to educate fearful humans on how awesome vilified animals really are, and I appreciate your video and hard work for educating me more about these beauties!
Thanks Suzanne! I am so grateful that you are tying to educate the misinformed as well..there certainly needs to be more of us.
good video Mark,I live near Clinch Mt. in Mendota Va. People here used to kill them all the time here and the population has declined drastically here.But now seem to be making a comeback.Thanks for educational videos like this to help people to better understand this beautiful snake.A balance of nature is a must.
Tena thanks and I couldn't agree more. Well before TH-cam, I watched nature documentaries as a kid just as everyone else from my generation and the one before and without them to educate and stimulate my budding interest in the natural world, I'm not sure if we would even be having this conversation.
Your videos are superb!
Thank you!
Excellent work, Mark. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks as always Ashley!
Mark, you videos are so well made. I am so impressed by the footage you get and the different angles. You have a wealth of knowledge and I am glad you are sharing it here. I hope you get to that $1000 for the rattlesnakes.
I am encouraged by your compliments...thank you! I hope I get there and beyond....
Incredible video, it is so well done! I was lucky enough to find my lifer timbers this year in the Hudson Valley, in-combat. Where they are has a great population, but a lot of the land has been created into neighborhoods unfortunately. Anyways, great video, I can’t wait to see what you continue to put out!
Thank you Riley and congratulations on your in-combat find! The Hudson Valley/Highlands does have a good population of horridus and I enjoy visiting the area, but you are right there is so much human encouragement. Thankfully, there is some protected land in the form of several fairly large parks.
Your channel is very good your like Steve Irwin also your channel is way underrated
I am humbled..thank you.
Mark is awesome
Youre going into the parts of the woods of the northeast that i avoid for this exact reason. I am always interested in where the snakes are though, bc there are alot in new york. You've got guts lol, im not a snake person at all. I would never kill them or even get close to them but I'm always looking out when I'm hiking. I think its been since we found a copperhead in my aunts house in New Jersey when I was a kid.. it was just hanging out and found a way in i guess. Awesome videos!
Thank you. I am glad you have some respect for them, despite not being their biggest fan and it sounds like it hasn't prevented you from enjoying the outdoors. You are certainly doing the right thing by being aware of your surroundings while out hiking.
I’m a hunter in southern WV. I haven’t seen a timber in a few years. Their numbers are low I hear from the DNR. Copperheads , now that’s a different story lol. I see them often where I hunt.
Great video. Tough in WV this year...
We have had a long hot summer, beginning with a June drought here, so not many snakes showing up at the usual basking/shedding/gestating areas.
Diamondbacks are moving here , that time of year, Sweetwater Tx , we own several thousand acres, we run cattle and farm . Very seldom do we have a run in with a snake. And I’ll add THAT OUR LAND IS NOT HUNTED, for snakes . WORLDS LARGEST ROUNDUP IS HERE IN SWEETWATER, but none of them come off us, Disgusting to go see that garbage, there still claiming the venom that’s milked is used for research. WE KNOW FOR A FACT THATS NOT TRUE.
Thank you for your reply! You are to be commended. I suspect your attitude is not the prevailing one in Sweetwater..which is sad. I visited Sweetwater a couple of years ago, and was intrigued by the west Texas landscape and coming from the Northeast, the level of hospitality was refreshing. I think Sweetwater is worth more than being the place where the largest rattlesnake roundup in the world occurs. I have ideas of how the roundup could be phased into something more educational..but still entertaining and most importantly, still generate money for the town.
There was a guy at the hawkwatch right over the border in NJ from Pennsylvania. He had a background with Fish and Wildlife in New Hampshire I believe.. I mentioned the thing in PA where people can take a venomous snake home with them as a pet or whatever you would call it. He didn't believe me. Next time that I saw him he said that he had read about this practice in Pennsylvania and that it was terrible.
Thanks for sharing Dave. I think most people would be surprised that you can keep a "Noah's Ark" worth of exotic wildlife in roughly half the states. Some are responsible pet owners involved in conservation, others for their own personal desire, and some of course involved in the illegal black market pet trade.
With the advances in snake style cameras that are not much bigger then a pencil and can be steered deep inside of area being inspected you could wait until mid summed and really inspect some of these dens which would be most interesting and revealing. I for one would love to see this done very carefully as not to disturb the habatat.
Indeed! Most of my recent videos have actually included footage using trail cams set up at den sights and baking areas. One of my trail cameras captured long-tailed weasel predation on timber rattlesnakes while they were hibernating. I was completely unaware of such predation, but it now offers more insight into the life history of the timber rattlesnake.
I have helped out with a Timber Rattlesnake study in Missouri. There the migration is just the opposite. The animals move down from the dens to the wetter lowlands to hunt. Of course, MO hills are small compared to the Andirondacks. What are those timbers primary food and water source up on a high ridge in NY? I live in the Northern Rockies, so I have no clue about the ecosystem there.
Thanks for sharing. Initial migration for most horridus is to migrate up from their hibernaculum to more exposed basking areas near/at ridge lines or mountain summits. Similar to your MO observations some timbers then move down to lower elevations to fields and along wetlands but a large percentage of all cohorts still remain at higher elevations. At these higher elevations it is well forested and support plenty of their favorite prey such as white-footed mice, chipmunks, and gray squirrels. They probably consume a decent amount of birds as well at the basking sites/birthing rookeries. I have observed a few species of song birds frequently flitting about low to the ground in scrub oak within inches of rattlesnakes. Water is prevalent, often in the form of mountain run-off and weekly rain. For the most part summer droughts are short lived and even during NY driest summers, dew still forms every morning.
Awesome!
Thank you!
It is 2021, leave the damn snakes alone. Let them live Free, like we all want to live.
Leave us alone Karen
Love it
whatre your thoughts on the canebreak?
Under the microscope they are considered the same species, but even Charles Darwin noted that species are fluid (i.e., speciation). Canebrakes and "mountain" timbers seem to be taking different evolutionary paths so to speak, similar to the common ancestor that was recently shared with cottonmouths and copperheads for example (and millions of other examples). There will be no fixed point in time to say, that a canebrake/mountain timber are a race, subspecies or perhaps their own species someday, just as there was not specific moment in history that Homo sapiens sapiens came into existence.
I am curious about how the snakes that leave the den early and get caught out in a late spring cold snap with snow deal with the elements. Any i
ideas Mark?
Melvin, good question. Along timber rattlesnake migration/egress routes there are usually partially buried rock slides that the snakes can seek refuge during spring cold snaps. They go deep enough to escape the occasional frosty spring night. I refer to these areas as staging areas. Some of these staging areas can even be confused with den pockets themselves especially if they are close to a known den and it can take many years to determine if it is a den pocket or a staging area. Most rattlesnakes are not up to the exposed basking sites until May, where the cap rocks maintain enough warmth that even during a freak cold snap, say a low of 30 degrees, under a slap of granite it will still stay just above freezing for hours (and May nights are relatively short in NY) Overall, excessive heat poses a greater threat to the snakes than the cold.
Seem like a transplant effort should take place from PA to NH?
That is certainly a backup option, but so far protecting NH dens has had positive results and there may fortunately be a few more rattlesnakes than originally thought just 10 years ago...possible comeback from dens that were originally though extirpated.
Mark, do you take any measures against Lyme disease? If so, what do you do?
I certainly don't take enough measures Dawn. I have had it twice, the first time really bad. I suppose these days, I do get more of a noticeable itch when one becomes embedded for several hours (well before the bacterium can be transmitted).
I think I need to get checked, they are bad! Take care of yourself, and keep pumping out those videos!
@@dawned-on-you I fully recovered after taking antibiotics. I don't see anything slowing me down anytime soon..'knock on wood"
I was wondering how did you find this den?
Overall, after learning about the life history of timber rattlesnakes, followed up by a lot of leg work!
You have good eyes
I live in PA I catch and release timber rattlesnakes. I do not kill them. I want the hunting in Pa to stop. It should be catch photo and release if you must touch the snakes, but not allowed to touch or harass a snake 3 foot or less. I have found 2 den sites and have learned a lot from you. Email me tfisherman63@gmail.com I would like to talk
I couldn't agree more Tim...I will send you a message via email this week
Amen they are barbaric no animal need be treated like that
Exactly, not to mention how vital they are to the ecosystem.
How much do you make 1000.00 seem cheep for a cause you should cover your costs but not make a living off of a few balls hit words so if you you really care about it then all the money should be for that cause
I'm not sure what you are implying. I have not made a cent, and $1k for me at least is a big chunk of change. If or when I start making any appreciable income, I plan on donating more than my promised grand and not to mention, I went to Sweetwater TX roundup producing a video... traveling from the Northeast, paying for three other people (my hired help basically), which as you can imagine, even being as frugal as possible ended up being quite expensive.
Those damn Rattlesnake roundups are the worst. Sweetwater should be ashamed. Advocates for Snake Preservation do what they are able, but it seems to be a loosing battle. Maybe one day the atrocity will end, even if it is Federally mandated, Texas surely will not. Nothing more than animal cruelty, for Sweetwater profit. Disguising and heartbreaking the way the poor snakes are treated. It must end.
You summed it up perfectly. I do have hope that Sweetwater will end someday at least in its current form. Change is slow in the area of the country, but major shifts towards human equality and environmental awareness that has unfolded over the decades in the US inevitably bumps rural West Texas towards a shared future.
This video was too boring. Just give us the baby. We don’t need the labor pains.
Mark. We must always have rattlesnake roundups. Shame on you. Very disappointed in you boy
You disappoint me James