Author
Bryon Shipley
Bryon Shipley
It has been a fabulous week at North Table Mountain since May 5. The weather was great, our snake hunting and tracking teams were fantastic, and informative interactions with park visitors, whether they were biking, hiking or running, has positively exceeded our expectations. It was a blast chatting with people about rattlesnakes! By Friday, May 12, there will be 11 rattlesnakes outfitted with transmitters roaming around the mountain. Three males that were caught for transmitters were quite large and lively, two of them weighing in well over a pound!
It is apparent that snakes are on the move, free from the restrictions of avoiding dangerous cold weather. Two males were found in the early evening as they openly explored their habitat. As these rattlesnakes move around, they are actively searching for food and water, hoping to avoid predators from ground as well as the air. Being venomous does not guarantee a life of immunity to predation! And it won’t be long now before the search for that perfect mate by adult males will be added to their to-do list for the season.
The rattlesnake research we are conducting on North Table Mountain is actually only one of a few that have been done inside the Front Range. For example, a study published in 2013 (Shipley et al.) from the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora, Colorado, detailed the interactions and associations of prairie dog colonies with rattlesnakes and showed that prairie dog colonies are important for rattlesnakes and many other animals by providing hibernation dens or hibernacula (singular = hibernaculum), summer cooling refuges, mate searching opportunities, and prey availability of many types, not just in the form of prairie dogs. It was also noted that rattlesnakes had a small home range centered around the colony, because many necessary resources were already nearby and long prey searching migrations were not needed.
The rattlesnake research we are conducting on North Table Mountain is actually only one of a few that have been done inside the Front Range. For example, a study published in 2013 (Shipley et al.) from the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora, Colorado, detailed the interactions and associations of prairie dog colonies with rattlesnakes and showed that prairie dog colonies are important for rattlesnakes and many other animals by providing hibernation dens or hibernacula (singular = hibernaculum), summer cooling refuges, mate searching opportunities, and prey availability of many types, not just in the form of prairie dogs. It was also noted that rattlesnakes had a small home range centered around the colony, because many necessary resources were already nearby and long prey searching migrations were not needed.
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Another great study (Mathies et al. 2015) was conducted at Rabbit Mountain Open Space Park in Longmont, Colorado to identify locations of rattlesnake hibernacula for the purpose of managing trail systems around these dens. Similar to the first study above, the report stated that hibernacula were found to be numerous and scattered around the mountain, not as a single hibernaculum serving perhaps hundreds of rattlesnakes as found in some spots in the U.S. What this means to the Park is that additional information on rattlesnake ecology and recreation safety was needed for all visitors; merely re-routing trail systems was not going to be effective in increasing visitor welfare.
Finally, and no less important, in 1981, a naturalist charged with removing rattlesnakes from nearby Ken-Caryl communities published a short article of observations about rattlesnakes (Ludlow 1981). He observed that rattlesnakes were found well distributed throughout the Hogback Mountains south of Morrison, Colorado, and that the snakes used hibernacula in the mountains as well as in prairie dog colonies at lower elevations.
We hope that our research at North Table Mountain will provide us with similar information as the above articles describe (see also the previous blog entry by Joseph Ehrenberger). Knowing specifics about how rattlesnakes move on and around the mountain top and sides, their preferences for hiding and basking spots relative to trails, where females are likely to give birth to babies will add a tremendous bounty of information to management plans for North Table Mountain Park, helping visitors learn to recreate safely and enjoy themselves, while preserving and protecting the wondrous diversity of snakes on the mountain.
We hope that our research at North Table Mountain will provide us with similar information as the above articles describe (see also the previous blog entry by Joseph Ehrenberger). Knowing specifics about how rattlesnakes move on and around the mountain top and sides, their preferences for hiding and basking spots relative to trails, where females are likely to give birth to babies will add a tremendous bounty of information to management plans for North Table Mountain Park, helping visitors learn to recreate safely and enjoy themselves, while preserving and protecting the wondrous diversity of snakes on the mountain.
Article references:
Shipley, B.K., D. Chiszar, K.T. Fitzgerald, and A.J. Saviola. 2013. Spatial ecology of Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) associated with Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies in Colorado. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 8(1):240-250. Open access journal available online.
Mathies, T., J. Ehrenberger, K. Urbanek, and B. Shipley. 2016. Identification of winter dens of Prairie Rattlesnakes on Rabbit Mountain Open Space.
Ludlow, M. 1981. Observations of Crotalus v. viridis and the herpetofauna of the Ken-Caryl Ranch, Jefferson, County, Colorado
Shipley, B.K., D. Chiszar, K.T. Fitzgerald, and A.J. Saviola. 2013. Spatial ecology of Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) associated with Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies in Colorado. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 8(1):240-250. Open access journal available online.
Mathies, T., J. Ehrenberger, K. Urbanek, and B. Shipley. 2016. Identification of winter dens of Prairie Rattlesnakes on Rabbit Mountain Open Space.
Ludlow, M. 1981. Observations of Crotalus v. viridis and the herpetofauna of the Ken-Caryl Ranch, Jefferson, County, Colorado
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