Ep 5: The Cruel Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Texas

Sweetwater, Texas is home to the largest rattlesnake roundup in the United States. Let's talk about what a rattlesnake roundup is, what happens at Sweetwater, and the ecological impact of this event.

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Sources

Adams, Clark E.; Thomas, John K. Texas Rattlesnake Roundups. Print. Texas A&M University Press. 6 Oct 2008. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VwJKDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=rattlesnake+roundup+sweetwater+texas&ots=RitTNNlzIw&sig=USOSQlGsRC8lMBzpvXaodTiKmQo#v=onepage&q=rattlesnake%20roundup%20sweetwater%20texas&f=false  

Adams et. al. Texas Rattlesnake Roundups: Implications of Unregulated Commercial Use of Wildlife. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 1994. Pp 324-330. Wiley. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3783264 

 Animal Info. Diamondback Rattlesnake Information, Facts, Photos, and Artwork. 3 May 2017. American Expedition. https://americanexpedition.us/learn-about-wildlife/diamondback-rattlesnake-information-facts-photos-and-artwork/

National Geographic. Rattlesnake Roundup | National Geographic. YouTube. 12 April 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6TfBBN8vqs 

UNILAD Adventure. The Texas Rattlesnake Roundup: The Dark Truth. YouTube. 6 April 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8cS4l9Fw4E 

 Villegas, Angela M. A Case Study on Rattlesnake Gassing for the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, TX. Journal of Undergraduate Research & Scholarly Work. https://rrpress.utsa.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12588/95/JURSW_Vol_6.49_ff.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y 

 Wilson, Sylvia. The American West through Representations of the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup. May 2019. The University of Texas at Austin. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/74550 

 Young, Greg. Rattlesnake Roundup. A Journal of Western Oklahoma Westview. Print. Vol 22 Issue 1 Article 19. 15 Nov 2002. https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2137&context=westview 

Transcript

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humane nature is an animal tourism podcast with discussions about animal abuse, injury and medicine, listener discretion is advised. Welcome back travelers to humane nature. I'm Stacia, your host. And this week we are going to be discussing the Sweetwater, Texas rattlesnake Roundup, I want to go ahead and put another disclaimer at the beginning of this, this is a pretty graphic episode. So if that is not something that you want to be interested in listening to it, I think it is very important that we talk about it, and talk about the dangers that it's it's posing to our wildlife down in Texas. But I completely understand if that's not something that you want to listen to today. So I will see you in our next episode, we will go ahead and start with some wildlife news from the past couple of weeks. First of all, conservation documents 178 out of 334, critically endangered species in Australia. So that's roughly over 50% the endangered species and habitats, these documents failed to mention climate change in any of them. 53% did not mention climate change at all, not even to mention that climate change had an effect or didn't have an effect it was just was not mentioned. And when it was mentioned, it was extremely brief and generalized and not aimed specifically at each species. So this will limit what recovery efforts we will be able to do for these species later. As information changes and science is updated about climate change in these areas. We won't have written down what needs to be done for these species and how climate change is affecting these critically endangered species in Australia. So this is something that from now on. All conservation documents should have listed how climate change is potentially affecting these species, and what we need to be doing in order to protect these species and their habitats. Second of all, a study in Pennsylvania in the United States shows that humans are driving predators and prey into closer contact and forests as they try to avoid people. So in areas where humans have a higher density of population, they are driving deer into the habitats more closely to like coyotes and black bears and wolves and things like that. And that is potentially causing population issues that is potentially causing some behavioral problems between the two, you know limiting food limiting, breeding those kinds of things. So they do need to do some more studies. But this preliminary study is showing that predators and prey, particularly white tailed deer, and coyotes, black bears, wolves, are being pushed into closer contact with each other because of humans in their area. Finally, 40% of wild deer that's wild white hair, white tailed deer. In four US states have been found to have antibodies for the COVID-19 virus, meaning 40% of these wild deer have had COVID-19 Possibly spilling over from infected humans. We're not sure if they're contracting it from humans in the area, or if it is now in their environment, if they're contracting it from nature. So this creates the potential for reverse zoonosis from humans to wildlife and back again, meaning we can be giving wildlife COVID-19 and they can be giving it right back to us. So that's a really big deal. We don't know how all these other species are reacting to COVID-19 if it's as deadly for them as it is for us. And this also increases the risk of new variants and potentially more dangerous variants as they are able to mutate in different forms of wildlife and then pass back to us as we get closer contact with them. So because of the Omicron variant that is spreading, travelers are advised to avoid non essential travel. I know Canada and the US have put out statements a lot of European countries have put out state statements and I believe Australia as well. So selfishly guys get your vaccines, get your vaccines and your boosters, I want to travel again, I haven't traveled since 2019. I haven't left the country since 2019. And as much as I also want to protect other people and the wildlife, that's why I haven't been traveling but guys I... I want this over and I want to be able to travel again. So part of it is me being selfish part of it is I just I want to protect the vulnerable out there and you should too. So let's get into our topic. Today we are talking about a rattlesnake Roundup, a very specific one, the largest that occurs in the United States located in Sweetwater, Texas, and I had kind of heard about this rattlesnake Roundup, but I didn't realize how huge it was and how gnarly it was like until I had researched into it so buckle in guys this is a big thing. This is probably gonna be a longer episode but there's so much information I wanted to share with you guys. So this is the largest rattlesnake roundup in the United States. I'm honestly unsure if these types of roundups occur in other countries I wasn't really able to find any data on that. So if you know of these like not even like rattlesnake but like venomous snake roundups or other kind of quote unquote dangerous animals roundups in your area, if you if you live in other places, please let me know I'm super interested. Well, the Sweetwater roundup began in 1958. It is held annually in the second weekend of March, and it attracts 30 to 40,000 visitors a year to Sweetwater and Sweetwater is a very small town in rural Texas. So this is a huge deal for them. It is a huge part of the community's identity. They it is the biggest like fundraiser and their biggest source of income for this town. So it's a huge, huge, huge deal for this area of Texas. So the rattlesnake hunters are also called Jaycees. So if you hear me say Jaycees, it's the same thing as these rattlesnake hunters. Just so you know. So Sweetwater...The Sweetwater round up, makes three big claims on how their Roundup is beneficial for not only conservation efforts of rattlesnakes, but beneficial for people in the area. They claim that they milk venom from the snakes in order to create antivenin they claim that they sell it to labs to create antivenin for you know people and animals have they ever get bit need to go to a hospital and get anti venom. So anti Venenin is the medical name for anti venom. So they're basically the same thing. And I know working in veterinary er hospitals down in Florida for a while I did have to give antivenin fairly frequently to dogs that had been bitten by rattlesnakes down there. So they also claim that this is a huge form of population control that they say that they desperately need, that they have just way too many rattlesnakes, and this is a way to curb their population. And they also claim that it is a big source of public education and educating people about the Rattlesnakes in the area. However, if you look further into these claims, none of them are true. Shocker. So none of the seven Venom labs so there are seven Venom labs in the United States that creates antivenin and use snake venom to create different kinds of medications. So that is a thing but none of the seven labs in the US take venom from these roundups not a single one. They use their own snakes in sterile controlled environments. So they don't know how sterile this venom is. They don't know what snakes they've come from, they don't know if they've become contaminated with something or if the snake was even sick. You know, there are a lot of things that go into it. So all of these labs in the US that use these use rattlesnake venom for research for medical purposes. None of them take any snakes, any Venom any anything from the Sweetwater rattlesnake Roundup, you know me being a STEM major myself in college, I know from experience that laboratory techs and scientists in labs want a very controlled sterile environment, especially when they're working with animals. They want as few variables as possible when they're doing their research. So there's no way that they're, they're taking any of this. Second, due to predator prey relationships and high infant mortality rate, the population of these rattlesnakes would not be exploding in these areas. So the, I'll briefly explain the predator prey relationship, it's, it's fairly simple, you can get really in depth into it, species by species. But basically, it's two, like fluctuating line graphs. And as the predator numbers rise, the prey numbers will drop, because, you know, they're being eaten by the predators. And then, so they're high predator, low prey. And then whenever the prey drops too low, the predators start to die off, because there's not enough food. And then as the predators starts to die off, the prey numbers go up until they reach a peak point. And vice versa. So it's kind of it kind of looks like this big radio wave with these two alternating waves, and they kind of you know, balance each other out, unless there's an outside influence on them, meaning these people catching these rattlesnakes that would otherwise be you know part of this predator prey relationship. So and then, rattlesnakes also have a very high infant mortality rate. So a female snake can lay, you know, dozens and dozens of eggs. But only a small small percentage of these are going to survive to adulthood. A, not all of them hatch. And then of those that hatch, very, very few of them survive very long. So that is why they lay so many eggs. And that's why so many animals out there will give birth to tons of young or lay tons of eggs, because they know, not all of them are going to survive. So that, you know, covers the population control. And as far as the public education, the education at this roundup is coming from the Jaycees the hunters instead of scientists. So you can imagine what kind of education they're giving people if you're trying to learn about the conservation of rattlesnakes, from people who are paid to hunt the rattlesnakes, instead of scientists who have actually studied them for a long period of time. So this spreads a lot of misinformation. If you watch any videos on YouTube about these, which I recommend, for more in depth information, if you're interested, I will warn you a lot of them are extremely graphic, because they're showing what they're doing to these snakes in the background. But they spread misinformation about breeding snake breeding patterns, they'll you know, claim that the mothers will give birth to, you know, dozens and dozens of live young, they spread misinformation about how often they eat, they often claim that they eat much less than they actually do. Because people, you know, will put forth the argument that they're helping the, you know, rodent population and helping to get rid of that and the Jaycees are claiming that they're not actually helping that much because they don't eat very often, which is not true. They also spread misinformation about how they use gasoline in their environments, which we will get to in a moment. And they also spread extremely dated misinformation about how to treat rattlesnake bites. Guys, when you if you ever got bit by a rattlesnake, I don't want to say when because very few of us will ever get bit by a rattlesnake. But if you are ever bitten by a rattlesnake, you do not want to one suck out the venom with your mouth and you do not want to tie off the area you don't want to you know, do the belt thing. And because what happens is yeah, it will kind of keep the venom in that one spot. However, it will drastically increase the tissue damage to that area. So you are more like say you were bit on the arm or the hand. If you try to suck out that venom. One you're introducing bacteria into this open wound and how snake venom works is it keeps your blood from clotting. So you're introducing all of this bacteria into this open wound where your body is unable to clot right away, which can lead to really high rates of infections and really gnarly infections because the human mouth is disgusting guys. It really is. And if you tie it off, if you like tried to limit the spread of the of the venom, that venom is going to stay in your hand and your lower arm, you are more likely to lose that hand because that venom is going to stay there and just eat away at that tissue rather than spreading so that it's like a lower concentration in a larger area and then get to a hospital to receive anti venom. So but these are the things that they're teaching people that you want to suck up the venom and you want to, you know, use a belt or a tourniquet or whatever to to bind it off. And this is causing a lot of issues. This is causing people to lose limbs and die from snake bites in the area. So in Sweetwater, they have contests for the most snakes caught, and also for the longest snake captured, so the winner for whoever the Jaycee that catches the most snakes in pounds, will win $800 in cash, and the person who catches the longest snake so they physically measure every single snake that they catch, wins $400 And then the round up purchases snakes from the Jaycees for $6 per pound. So they measure or they weigh the snakes in pounds, and then they pay them $6 per pound, which is quite a bit of money, especially if you're catching you know hundreds of pounds of snakes. In 2016. The Sweetwater rattlesnake roundup alone took in 24,262 pounds, or just over 11,000 kilograms of rattlesnakes in one year. Think of how many snakes that is that, that they're taking from the environment, like any person with any kind of conservation knowledge or biology knowledge knows that that can't be good, that can't be good for the environment. And that just increases the risk of people getting hurt. You know, that's a lot of snakes. So, this is a 3 day event that draws in, you know, the 30 to 40,000 visitors a year and and they bring in roughly eight and a half million US dollars a year for this for this small town. So it's a really huge thing. And this rattlesnake roundup contains a carnival, a beauty pageant, community dances, guided hunts, bus tours of rattlesnake dens, a gun coin and knife show cook offs, and a flea market in addition to the skinning pit, which is the biggest attraction there. So it's not just about you know, killing the rattlesnakes. But the skinning pit which we will get to in a bit is the biggest attraction and it's pretty disgusting. But it's like this huge community thing that's centered around the killing of these rattlesnakes. So these Jaycees will slaughter and skin the snakes which are all western diamondbacks. So the United States has two main rattlesnakes, so they've got the eastern and western Diamondbacks. And then this one, we've got more than the two but in this case, we're talking about the western diamondback. These are the Rattlesnakes at this round up, the skinning pit the main attraction, you can pay$20 to skin a snake, keep the skin and then take a photo and how a snake's anatomy works. They will be had the snake they will you know cut the head off with a machete. But the snakes still have electrical currents running through their bodies, even after they've been beheaded. There's, you know, no way to know if they're still able to feel things or if it's just a remaining kind of muscle twitch but after you kill a snake, whether by beheading or, you know, whatever else, snakes will still move around. And it's it's a pretty creepy thing to see. Not gonna lie, I have seen it myself after having to euthanize some pet snakes and stuff in my life as a as a vet tech, with working with vets that did some exotic animal care, but they will continue to move as if they're alive. And while they're still moving. They will skin them. They will remove the skin all the way down the snake. And there's no real way to tell if that snake can still feel this. But even if they can't, you're they want to skin them right away because it's like skinning a snake alive the way that it's moving and I can't imagine wanting to do that. Some snakes are still alive when they're skinned if they haven't been beheaded yet or you know that's awful. Most of them are decapitated with the machete. But what they do they just have a chopping block. For snakes. They chop the head off right before they want to get skinned and then the snake is still moving around. The skins and the meat are sold at the Show at the at the round up. And they also have these shows where the Jaycees will taunt snakes to bite balloons and things, which is just awful. They're cornering these snakes and a snake will usually only bite as the last defense, the snake will always want to escape, first and foremost. And so these people corner the snakes, taunt them by shoving a big balloon in their face over and over and over again until the snake, you know, bites it, and then pops the balloon and it's this big event. So, all of that is pretty gruesome and awful. Most of the Jaycee hunters use the gassing method in order to catch the snakes. So let's talk about the gassing method. They will spray gasoline on snake dens to force snakes out of the dens because the snakes are suffocating inside. And the snakes are usually hibernating at the time of the roundup. So these snakes are hibernating in the dens they spray gasoline inside to make the snakes flee the dens because they're being suffocated. And then they are caught and brought into the to the roundup to the to the skinning pit. This practice of gassing is banned from many states and is extremely harmful to wildlife and the environment. So I'm sure you can imagine, but let's get into it. Gasoline makes the dens uninhabitable after forcing remaining snakes closer to residential populations for shelter. So that, you know probably further it further pushes this narrative that they have an overpopulation problem because the snakes are unable to go to the dens because they'd suffocate inside from the remaining gasoline and they're forced to take shelter under people's like porches, in barns, things like that. And the state and local fish and wildlife are convinced they have a rattlesnake overpopulation problem in the area, but have not shown any evidence they've not shown numbers, they've not done any studies. They're just kind of making this claim to allow this round up to continue to happen. So gassing there, there are other animals that will live in rattlesnake dens, their turtles, different rodents, you know, other kinds of reptiles and things. And this makes the area uninhabitable for them as well. Not to mention the runoff of pure gasoline running into the soil running into the local water. So it's just not a good idea all around, but the local fish and wildlife they have, in the past ignored evidence that gassing is harmful. Scientists have done studies and tried to report the evidence to them and try to pass bills, like push bills and petitions and things that show that gassing is harmful to the snakes to the environment to other species that live in the area. And they have overturned every bill that had been passed their way. Local Sweetwater Hunters also complained that Texas Parks and Wildlife are trying to shut them down. So the Parks and Wildlife are both ignoring the problem. But the local Jaycees are complaining that they're also trying to shut them down. So they're just fighting on both sides and a 1992 study. So way back in 1992 found that the extensive commercialization of the western diamondback rattlesnake in Texas, has a highly structured network of dealers and hunters. And the snake parts and products are highly sought in diverse markets. So there's a huge market in that area of Texas for rattlesnake. Skins, rattlesnake meat rattlesnake, different parts. And that's a huge problem. You think about the big diverse network for selling things like elephant ivory, or Wilds or wild cat skins, like leopards and tigers and things. This isn't really any different. It's just, they're just snakes so people care about them less and sweet. Finally, Sweetwater does not have any limitations on the number of snakes each person can hunt each year. This is unlike any other game hunting or fishing. So if you are a deer hunter or boar, Hunter or whatever else like hunters. Every year, there is a limit on the number of animals each person can hunt, so that it doesn't disrupt the wildlife too much. So it doesn't disrupt the local environment, there are no limitations for how many snakes each person can get, how far out they can travel to get them. And also, the western diamondback is a non game species, so they should not be legally allowed to be hunted. Only game species are supposed to be allowed to be hunted. So that's why we're allowed to hunt deer and wild boar. And not bear Not, not bear not, you know, these these large predators that are not game in the US. So that was a lot of information I just threw at you who let's take a breather for a moment. And I will be right back and we will talk about the ecological effects of this. We'll talk about some human psychology to snakes, which I find super fascinating and some solutions that we can push. So I will talk about that right after this. 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That's over $2,000 worth of travel miles. Where will you fly for free with your miles? Welcome back everybody, thanks for listening to that. Once again, that does help support my podcast and my blog by you listening to those ads and clicking on the links in the description. I really appreciate your support. So now that we've talked about all the facts about the what actually goes on at the Sweetwater rattlesnake Roundup, let's talk about how it effects or sorry how it affects the local ecology in the area. So the western diamondback is the only snake people deliberately hunt and celebrate its extermination. Like why no one knows why. Texas has 11 Snakes considered dangerous to humans, but only the western diamondback is hunted. They've got 26 species of snakes all together and 11 that are considered dangerous to humans, including other species of rattlesnake, but only the western diamondback is hunted for these roundups, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Other species of animals that live in the dens are also being gassed by the gasoline in including foxes, burrowing owls, toads, other species of reptile other snakes, all wildlife within range of the gassed snake dens can be harmed from the fumes. So these fumes can travel, you know, a breeze picks it up and these fumes from the gasoline can travel a really long way. They're not allowing people to really study it in the area. So we don't know how far they can travel or how long it lasts in the area after after gassing. Because they're just barring any researchers from the area. Gasoline runoff pollutes the local waterways, it's polluting, potentially polluting local crops and everything as well for people. And removing 1000s of pounds of snakes every year has to have a negative impact on the local ecology. But the research in the area is blocked. So statements from the local Jaycees and officials show that annual hunting has severely decreased the number of snakes. So there are interviews that I read and and watched. If they're, you know, Videos doing my research for this and local hunters have admitted that there have been severely decreased numbers of snakes each year. They're finding less and less every year. And in the immediate area, which is resulting in hunters moving further out from Sweetwater to find them because they're getting paid to do this. Remember, they're getting paid that $6 per pound of snakes that they're bringing in, in addition to the top prices of $800 and$400, depending on which price that they get. So, like, this is just crazy to me, um, predators that feed on rattlesnakes can also suffer. So predators that feed on the Rattlesnakes can suffer from starvation, because you're removing a huge portion of their food source or poisoning from gasoline. So not all of the snakes that are gassed are going to be caught, some of them are going to get away. And if a snake, being cold blooded, has an extremely slow metabolism has an extremely slow metabolism so that gasoline can stay in its system for a very, very long time. So, if you get animals such as Road Runners, large birds, such as you know different kinds of owls and hawks, and eagles, coyotes and kingsnakes, which is a non venomous, larger snake that eats rattlesnakes, they can suffer from starvation or poisoning from from these roundups. rattlesnakes' prey can also overrun an area if the snake population is depleted. So think mice, rats, rabbits lizards. So, remember that predator prey balance chart and I talked to the beginning, if you cause the predator numbers to severely drop those prey numbers, the rodents and everything are going to skyrocket because all of a sudden they have far, far fewer prey. They can cause huge problems with crops and wild vegetation and other animals in the area. So, for an example, rabbits and mice and things, eat constantly, especially you know, the herbivorous animals are constantly eating. And they can rapidly deplete the vegetation, the grass, the local ecology in an area if if they're not being hunted, if they're not naturally being being hunted. So this can cause other animals to starve. Because there's not enough vegetation to feed all the animals in the area. They also cause a lot of issues with local farmers with their crops. An adult rat can easily consume 25 pounds of grain in a year, just one rat, and they can produce 10 litters of an average eight pops that is a potential 80 baby rats from one adult female rat. So you multiply 80 New rats by the 25 pounds of grain each and you got a problem. They're eating grain storage, they're eating the live plants the live crops. And by consuming a single female rat, one rattlesnake can save a farmer an estimated 2,025 pounds of grain in a single year. Just one rattlesnake, one rat, however, the farmer does need to allow snakes around where the rats are which the grain silos, the their their crops and everything for crops to thrive for the local or local ecology to thrive. The snakes do need to be allowed to be around because a snake is not going to eat your grain. A snake is not going to eat your corn, your wheat, your barley, your vegetables, whatever it is you're growing, but they will eat the rats and the rabbits and the mice that are consuming all of your crops. And not to mention the amount of disease that rats and mice can spread especially. I didn't know if you knew this but plague Yeah, bubonic plague is still a thing. It still exists. And you can still catch it. There is a cure for it now, but that's scary as hell to me. And Hantavirus so rats can spread disease to people and they can spread disease to other farm animals like your your cows, your sheep your chickens. So, just having a few snakes in the area can rapidly decrease the amount of rats the amount of damage caused by them to your farm. The western diamondback does cause the most bites in humans per year. It causes or kills about one person per year in the US. However, if you look at the the actual numbers, 0.2%, not even a half a percent, so 0.2% of venomous bites result in death. And about half of these bites are considered dry bites, which means no venom is excreted, they just you know, bite and release without venom. So, point 0.2% of people who are bitten by a venomous snake that is that has released its venom can die. Compare that to 20 people a year dying from dog bites in the US. So 1 person a year versus 20 in dogs, but we're not killing off dogs. Well, I mean, I guess we kind of are in shelter and kill shelters and things but we're not having these huge shows of dog roundups where we are slaughtering dogs and celebrating their deaths. That's that's just not happening. And how many of these bites that are causing problems are happening during the hunting seasons. How many of these baits are occurring during these rattlesnake roundups? There's no data because we're not allowed to research it. They they bar and threaten people who are against them against the roundups, they bar researchers and scientists and we all know that something shady is going on when a scientist is banned from researching in an area. So just keep that in mind. This, these roundups could also be causing guided evolution, that is a question that researchers have put out, could stronger and more aggressive snakes be evolving, because they're the ones that survive each year. So the weaker snakes, the the snakes less prone to biting, are the potentially the ones being caught. And the stronger and more aggressive snakes are surviving by getting away, and then breeding, passing on those traits of aggression. So that is also something to think about. So let's also briefly talk about the human psychology to the snake. So this dates back 1000s of years, as long as people have been around snakes, there have been, you know, a human psychology to the snake. So due to religion, particularly Christianity, you know, you're talking about how Satan took the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden and tricked Eve to you know, eating the forbidden fruit and then they got kicked out and that paints is that paint snakes as malicious and evil and that sticks with you, you learn that as a young kid that the snake is evil, you can easily start to think that all snakes are evil, different folklore throughout multiple different cultures. And Hollywood. Think about movies like Snakes on a Plane, or Indiana Jones or you know any of these other movies that are portraying snakes as evil and extremely dangerous and aggressive and all these other things, especially rattlesnakes, these, this fear of snakes is passed down person, to person. They have done studies in the past, I did learn about this a little I am not an expert on it, but about how different fears and phobias they're not sure how much of it is nature versus nurture, but how it is often traced through families, you know, they don't know if you can actually genetically inherit and inherit a fear or phobia of something. Or if you grow up watching a parent, a sibling, whatever, be extremely fearful of something and then you learn that from them. That being nurture. So there are a lot of studies that go into that not just about snakes, but about other huge phobias, that people seem to have like snakes, spiders, deep water, even clowns for me, I'm terrified of clowns, no idea where it came from. But there the psychology of phobias is extremely interesting. But anyway, back to the snakes. Typically, this fear is based on misinformation. So very rarely a person who knows a lot about Snakes are afraid of them. They could be careful around them they could be hesitant or or cautious. But that's not the same thing as fear. The misinformation is usually what drives the fear. And this fear drives events like the roundups which questions whether it's about human domination over nature here. Sorry As you could hear that that was a Mr. Loki sleeping behind me, if you heard his little bell, human domination over nature or human domination over just something dangerous. This intense fear sometimes even causes death, which is crazy. So, someone who's immensely fearful of snakes gets bitten by a snake even if it's a non venomous snake or if it's a dry bite. There are many, many cases of fatal heart attacks that people suffer because they were bitten by a snake and they're just so fearful, even if there was no venom in that bite. At the Sweetwater rattlesnake roundup young children often participate in the skinning and decapitation of the snakes. They often participate in this misinformation. So they learn the these things extremely young and they grow up watching these things. And then they participate as adults so it is spread from person to person. So human psychology is extremely interesting, and there is a rich, rich history of human psychology to snakes. Finally, let's talk about some solutions to this problem that we have in Sweetwater. Unfortunately, there's not much of a chance As of recording this at the end of 2021 of us completely stopping the Sweetwater rattlesnake Roundup, it is too rooted in their culture it is too protected by the locals and the Texas government. So what we can do is petition for one scientists to be able to come into the area and actually research the potential damage this roundup is causing two push laws to be passed that limits the number of snakes each Jaycee can bring in just like any other hunting, you have a limit of the number of deer boar, whatever each hunting season three, petition to stop the use of gassing, and have them hunt for rattlesnakes in other ways. And try to get this research done to show how gassing is potentially harming the environment and the local people. So the more we can do that, the better. And finally, if you are outside of the United States or outside of Texas, and there's not really a way for your voice to be heard by the Texas government or the US government, just let people know what's going on. The more people we have on our side, the better and the more change that we can do. To end this. I do want to read this poem that I found online. That is called rattlesnake roundup that I thought was extremely interesting. This poem was written by Greg Young and titled rattlesnake Roundup. Each year, I hear the commercial come to the world's largest rattlesnake Roundup. I consider taking the family to eat fried snake flesh to marvel at handlers milking venom into jars. Neighbors tell me rattlers are not aggressive. You've lived here all your life they say walked right by them without knowing it. I think of how March is early snake season, how in June I will wade through waist high weeds lift hay bales from the shadows in the barn. weekenders flock to Sweetwater, Texas. I see them on the six o'clock news families dressed in shorts and sandals, a little girl in dog years taps on the glass. Tomorrow is the last day to see them before they end up as a belt buckle or trophy. A coiled diamond back mounted on a board and encased in glass displayed at eye level in an executive suite. More will taunt them before their appointed time. They will cheer the rattlesnake queen chew the rubbery meet I'll stay home wear boots. Step lightly shake the rattle in my gourd. I thought that was amazing. I thought that really showed how you can overcome this kind of group psychology and And this group fear of snakes and not participate. And the slaughter of these animals and just common sense, know how to avoid them and know that they're not inherently dangerous and you know wear your thick boots if you're going to be in their area and they will more than likely run away from you. So just like my previous episodes where I ended by giving some fun facts and fast facts about previously it was Asian elephants and then Chiang Mai in the city of Chiang Mai. I'm going to give you some fun facts about the western diamondback. So maybe it'll help help you if you're a little fearful of the snakes, which I totally get, especially with the misinformation out there. And like I said, movies and things. But the more you learn about them, the less scary they seem. So let's learn together. So a western diamondback can live over 20 years in the wild, and they grow, usually between three to six feet in length. But typically, they're around four feet long. They grow based on food availability, which is very different compared to mammals especially. So in warmer climates where they potentially don't have to hibernate or don't hibernate as long and they have more food sources for longer periods of the year, they will grow longer. Because of food availability, It is unknown how large they can actually reach without humans interrupting. So humans interrupting them by by hunting, or depleting their food sources, you know, by poisoning rats and mice and getting rid of rabbits and things like that. A rattlesnake's rattle is made from keratin, which is the same material that your hair and fingernails are made out of a new segment is added whenever they shed. So potentially their rattle can get longer the older they they get, but they can also lose segments fairly frequently. So the segments aren't, they're kind of loosely attached to each other. If you have ever seen like a rattlesnake rattle that's, you know, obviously not on a rattlesnake anymore, they're really, really cool. So the segments are kind of loosely connected to each other and can pretty easily break off by them shedding or by them, you know, being hunted or whatever. So it's not always accurate to determine how old a rattlesnake is by counting their their rattle segments, which is what a lot of people like to say. They shake their rattles as a warning when they are about to strike. So if you ever hear if you're ever in rattlesnake territory, and you hear the rattle, stop what you are doing, try to locate that rattlesnake and back away, they will almost always only strike when they cannot escape. So you have either purposefully, hopefully not hopefully not on purpose, cornered the snake and they're giving you a warning that they're about to strike. So they use their rattles to warn when they're about to strike what they deem as a threat. So they do not do this when they're hunting for their prey. They can shake their rattle back and forth 20 to 100 times per second. That's so fast 20 to 100 times per second. And again only used when escape is not an option from predators or other large animals. So that includes us that includes like a horse or a cow that may be about to step on them. And rattlesnakes or the western diamondback give birth to live young, which is highly unusual for reptiles in general, usually about 14 but they can give birth to up to 25 in early fall, roughly every other year. So they typically don't give birth every year. Because it takes a lot of energy depletes a lot of their you know fat sources from food and they could starve to death if they if they do it every year. When the snake is born, it is fully developed and independent so they're born, they take off, they start hunting for themselves. However they do follow their mother back to the same den during hibernation, typically, so if you find a den full of snakes, they will often be related different generations of snakes. They are ovoviviparous sorry if I butchered that, which means they produce eggs that hatch inside. So rattlesnakes or the western diamondback do technically have eggs like every reptile does, but they keep the eggs inside, the babies hatch inside. And they're kind of like they're not a hardshell egg. They're kind of like a jelly, like fish egg almost. They hatch inside the mother and then the mother gives live birth. They can survive two years without eating that, you know, cold blooded life, they can survive two years without eating, but usually eat either several weeks to a couple of months apart. So they will usually eat like once a month or once every other month or so, depending on food availability, and how big they are. They use heat and smell to observe the world around them and to hunt. So they have very poor eyesight, they don't really hear the same way that we do. They don't hear like auditory wavelengths. They are what they see kind of temperature, which is really, really cool. So the temperature, their temperature signals to the same part of their brain as sight. So when they are looking around at their world, the kind of infrared that you see in like in like movies, and things are kind of overlaid what they're seeing. So they see both in like visual shapes and heat, which is really cool. And they can also feel sounds in the ground. Instead of like auditory hearing them as we do. The tongue flick that a snake does detects airborne poll..., particles, airborne particles, and deposits them on a specialized organ called the Jacobson's organ inside their mouth. And that is how they kind of smell. So smell... How we smell is actually airborne particles from different things. And instead of having olfactory glands, like we do, and like most mammals do, the snake actually grabs these particles out of the air with its forked tongue, and then deposits it on this specialized organ in their mouth. And that tells them what they are smelling, which is really cool. Their entire body is covered in one sheet of skin. And that's why you see an intact snake skin. And the skin is thickened and kind of wrinkled to form hardened scales. The scales create armor, to help protect them from predators. It also helps increase their flexibility. So the way that scales kind of move against each other, helps a snake be flexible rather than like what if it was one hard scale all the way down, it wouldn't really be able to move the way that we see snakes move. Shedding is required for growth. So they can shed up to six times a year. And every time they shed they they grow a little bit. Their scales also help them camouflage themselves. So how a snake looks is often determined by their environment. And you will see different snakes like a green you are not going to find a bright green snake in a brown desert and vice versa. So the Western diamond back in the western diamondback's case their camouflage to blend in with shadows to blend in with rocks and sand. And it helps camouflage them from predators to hide and also from prey so their prey don't see them coming. They are cold blooded, which means they do not produce their own body heat to digest food. And they rely on the environment. So in order to get their body temperature up high enough to digest their food. They need to lay out where it's warm, which is why you will see snakes sunbathing. Their venom, the western diamondback rattlesnake have hemo toxic venom which destroys blood coagulants causing internal bleeding tissue damage and swelling. And this does multiple things. It helps to one kill the prey helps kill kill their prey. It also begins digesting them before the snake swallows them so it helps digest kind of some of the harder to digest parts of that animal before They've actually swallowed them. And it also kills harmful gut bacteria that could cause infections in the snake. They have up to seven different sets of fangs in different stages of development. So if you think of a shark jaw, and how they've got multiple layers of, of teeth, the western diamondback is kind of similar. So it will have up to seven different sets of fangs kind of behind each other similar to a shark in different stages of development. So they will be, you know, not as big or not as hard or not as fully formed, they can strike up to 175 miles per hour or 282 kilometers per hour. However, they can only strike items or prey directly overhead due to how their head move, how their heads move, and how their fangs work, and the location of its eyes. So if you see a snake, it can really only strike you if you're directly in front of it or directly overhead it so if you stay out of its way, even if it wanted to, it's not going to strike. They usually strike and release due to how their venom works. So they will strike inject venom and release and then chase down their prey. If you are visiting areas that have snakes, just snakes in general, it is very important to know what especially the venomous snakes in an area look like and where they live before hiking and visiting. So this is especially important in the American Southwest. Different parts of Southeast Asia, Australia, places with lots of snakes. So, if you're going to be hiking during snake season, where there are venomous snakes have a generalized idea of what they look like what they sound like. If they're rattlesnakes, wear those thick boots that will help protect you and just be aware of your surroundings and you will be fine. I hike all the time in areas that have venomous snakes and I have never been bit I have been bitten by a snake before. But never in the wild It was while I was handling a an elderly blind Snake when I used to work at a zoo. And I scared the snake and it struck me out of fear. But I have I'm constantly hiking in areas with snakes and I never get bit so just use your common sense learn as much as you can. Snakes are our friends guys, we really need to work to protect them, just like the cute fluffy mammals that we all love and and see in wildlife commercials and things like that. So they're extremely important for generalized wildlife conservation. They're extremely important for local ecologies, and they deserve as much love and respect from us as any other animal that we love. So thank you so much for listening guys. I will see you in two weeks. And I will talk to you guys about my one of my absolute favorite destinations to see wild snakes so I'll let you guys guess where that is, but I will see you in two weeks. Sources for today's show can be found in the show notes. Thanks for listening