Yesterdays post of the rattlesnake with the quail transmitter inside has now become the most popular post to date (over 8.200 views), by a good ways, over the picture of 3 coyote pups drinking posted 2 years ago by Alison Bleich. Comments posted thereto range from kill the snake to handle it more gently. Ranch policy is to not kill rattlesnakes unless theyre within 200 yards of the HQ or Pavilion, then theyre fair game. Initially (2007) Id hoped to put transmitters in some rattlesnakes, but majority of snakes we see were and still are) below what I consider minimum size to accommodate the transmitter (theyre inserted peritoneally). Ive postulated that wed all be shocked if we knew how often weve stepped within a yardstick of a rattlesnake and never knew it. This mortality was the 6th weve attributed to rattlesnakes since 2008 (4 of them were in 2009) on RPQRR; this is likely a conservative number as some transmitters are taken and deposited beneath huge boulders and thus unretrievable; snakes were likely involved in some of those. Other research weve done off-site back to 1995 would include another 6 or 7 mortalities; including at least 2 blue quail.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 03:40:26 +0000
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