EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

i heard that rattle snakes are adapting to pigs eating them. pigs hear a rattle snake and will find it and eat it. so the snakes are adapting to not rattle. has anybody heard of this

I have quite a few of them where i live and hunt and was wondering the same about when i am standing right next to them or stepping over them and have even stepped on one and never did they rattle!!!! Thought they were supposed to warn you?? lol. As far as pigs i would think they could smell them stinking son of a guns from a mile away???

King snakes have eaten them since the begining of time and they still rattle.

I heard the same thing last year from some guys in South Texas. Like I told them.......what a load of crap!  ;D But hey,.....I have been wrong before.

Check out CrackerC's Snake dog thread. Hogs and rattlers have co existed for a long time in Florida and the snakes are still using their rattlers over there. ;)

rattle or no rattle...i dont want no part of em

thats the same thing i was told from a guy at work. the snakes are adaptin to the hogs eating them. but i have killed 2 at my house already about 16" and both didnt give a sign of warning.

It has nothing to do with pigs it is people. If a rattlesnake did not rattle a buffalo would step on them. So they rattled or died. But when people come along and they rattle we kill them. So if they rattle they die. It is just selective breeding. If only the ones that don't rattle live to breed then that trait is passed on.

I have heard that but think it is bull poo too. Killed this yesterday walking to some turkeys. He didnt make a peep and I was probably 2 feet or less before I saw him. Some snakes are still dormant...not all but some. I think he was still laying not far from his den. He woke up pretty quick when I popped him on the head with a stick so my son could make a good shot.

(http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/rexbumpus/024-1.jpg)

(http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/rexbumpus/023-1.jpg)

I cant support this Warren.  :D The only rattle snakes that I have ever killed never rattled. The few that I have heard rattle sent me walking the other way!

I guess I should add that what I said was some stupid biologist's study. Me I just don't think that much ;D But they said it was a gradual thing over a couple hundred years. But I have heard them rattle, I have seen some that did not rattle and just wonder how many I walked by I did not see or hear.

I also heard that last summer bout rattlers adapting to not rattle because of predators.

Yeah, it was biologist that thought it would be a good idea to re introduce wolves back into the wilderness areas and National Forest of Idaho and Montana a few years ago. Idaho recently declared the wolves a disaster emergency. Go figure.

Watch out them things can still bite a good while after being dead

 Im sure that the govt. gave some biologists a 500,000 dollar grant to study whether or not rattlesnakes are rattling less and why. Dang, I should have became a biologist! :(

It's not so much adaption as it Evolution.. It's simple Darwinism "Survival of the fittest!"

As more and more hogs populate the state they begin having effects on Herpetofauna(amphibians and snakes) I recently wrote an abstract for school on a research paper , "depradation of Herpetofauna do to Feral Hogs".. They stated in that study that in the 65 hogs analyzed; they were able to calculate they had an overall of 254 hours grazing time and in that time 150 different Herpetofauna were consumed, consisting of 5 separate species.. 3 frogs and 2 snakes!

That being said as more hogs eat/kill the rattlesnakes that do rattle and announce their presence they are selectively choosing them and allowing the snakes that don't give the "rattle warning" to live. These " quiet" rattlesnakes then pass on their genes leading to more non-rattling snakes and so on...

 :D This is funny thread, I have yet to find one that rattled here in the mtns, and not a hog one where i found the snakes. So thats a BIG BULL # 2. theory. Some do and some dont, all depends on how threatened they feel.

And GOD created it all. :angel: ;D

Amen

I second the facial expression of the youngster on the ground. Thats me to lil buddy. If it aint an endangered species...... when I see it it instantly becomes one. Good pics

Not to bring up a past thread but thats just one reason to carry a gun in the woods.  ;D  Especially in South Fl!!!!!  I think snakes still out number Yankees  :D

Animals adapt to life we all know that,but how can someone come to the conclusion. That rattle snakes aren't rattleing due to hogs eating them? Can someone explain this to me.....