A few things to know about rattlesnakes that the Lone Ranger and Tonto didn’t

Modified tail scales form a rattle on a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake Crotalus atrox. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a post from a few days ago, I wrote about a trip a friend and I took to eastern Oregon near the Idaho border in search of rattlesnakes. We were told the location of a rattlesnake den in which we caught several of the snakes. Over the years, I’ve had several encounters with rattlesnakes while either hiking or camping in Oregon, but really knew little about them. Even after keeping a live rattlesnake in an aquarium for a few years in my living room, feeding it mice on occasion, I still knew little about them. So I did some research on rattlesnakes, which might help folks understand them a little better.