Jun 3, 2026 · 29 min · 12 segments
Humans have evolved alongside snakes since our earliest existence. From then to Eve’s story and countless myths, snakes have created mystery, fear and folklore within our minds. Now in this modern age…
Roy Arthur BlodgettGuest
Susan BrandtHost
Marney BlairHost
[outro music]We're now gonna spend some time talking about snakebite prevention and how we can try to coexist better with rattlesnakes.
I think a big, a big part of, um, you know, coexisting well alongside rattlesnakes is just, is just having situational awareness.
Um, it helps to understand, like, what I, what I described earlier about their kind of thermal ecology.
Is it gonna be during the day, or is it at night? I would, I would say that if it's, if it's comfortable temperature for you to be outside in a T-shirt and shorts and, like, not, uh, you know, suffering a lot from the heat, it's probably perfect temperatures for rattlesnakes to be out too.
Be aware that, you know, if it's very, very hot out, that the snakes are more likely to gonna be seeking shade than they are gonna be seeking sun, which might bring them closer to human structures.
But the thing is, we are, you know, as, as, uh, hominids, as primates, we have very good vision, and we're very good at seeing snakes.
And sometimes we're very good at seeing snakes before we've even really fully noticed it.
And some of us have had this experience where you're, like, walking down a trail and, like, suddenly your body puts on the brakes before you're cognitively aware that there's a snake in the trail up ahead of you, and that's because it's, like, that's old, old shared lineage with, um, you know, our hominid ancestors and snakes.
They have, like, this, um, [lips smack] sweet, like, cantaloupe, melon, cantaloupe in the field sort of smell.
Um, and I think that that is often too particular to when you're near their, their den sites.
... you're actually smelling the, like, the, the congregation of rattlesnakes, you know, over, over millennia because they're utilizing den sites very often for millennia.
Part of the reason why this episode of Critter Chat is about rattlesnakes is because we heard the news of three people in California succumbing to rattlesnake bites.
So, um, for anyone listening who's not aware, we've had, we've had three fatalities, um, from rattlesnake bites this year in California already, and we're just...
And in fact, in most years in California, we have no fatalities from rattlesnake bites.
[outro music]We're now gonna spend some time talking about snakebite prevention and how we can try to coexist better with rattlesnakes.
I think a big, a big part of, um, you know, coexisting well alongside rattlesnakes is just, is just having situational awareness.
Um, it helps to understand, like, what I, what I described earlier about their kind of thermal ecology.
Is it gonna be during the day, or is it at night? I would, I would say that if it's, if it's comfortable temperature for you to be outside in a T-shirt and shorts and, like, not, uh, you know, suffering a lot from the heat, it's probably perfect temperatures for rattlesnakes to be out too.
Be aware that, you know, if it's very, very hot out, that the snakes are more likely to gonna be seeking shade than they are gonna be seeking sun, which might bring them closer to human structures.
But the thing is, we are, you know, as, as, uh, hominids, as primates, we have very good vision, and we're very good at seeing snakes.
And sometimes we're very good at seeing snakes before we've even really fully noticed it.
And some of us have had this experience where you're, like, walking down a trail and, like, suddenly your body puts on the brakes before you're cognitively aware that there's a snake in the trail up ahead of you, and that's because it's, like, that's old, old shared lineage with, um, you know, our hominid ancestors and snakes.
They have, like, this, um, [lips smack] sweet, like, cantaloupe, melon, cantaloupe in the field sort of smell.
Um, and I think that that is often too particular to when you're near their, their den sites.
... you're actually smelling the, like, the, the congregation of rattlesnakes, you know, over, over millennia because they're utilizing den sites very often for millennia.
Part of the reason why this episode of Critter Chat is about rattlesnakes is because we heard the news of three people in California succumbing to rattlesnake bites.
So, um, for anyone listening who's not aware, we've had, we've had three fatalities, um, from rattlesnake bites this year in California already, and we're just...
And in fact, in most years in California, we have no fatalities from rattlesnake bites.
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