AMERICAN-STATESMAN (Austin, Texas) 11 April 08 When a rattler falls in a well, does it make a noise (Mike Leggett)
I thought maybe I was the only one who could hear the rattlesnake … and I was right.
Three other people peering over the edge of an abandoned well at an old homesite way up in Concho County were just standing there deal as a post and doing nothing, even though one of them was so afraid of snakes he was carrying a pistol to dispatch any he might encounter.
Now turkey season is a great time to find rattlesnakes in Texas, especially west of IH-35, where they are almost as common as jackrabbits. I caught my three biggest — 6-0, 6-2 and 6-8 — during a spring turkey hunt years ago in Zavala County just by cruising dirt roads late on warm afternoons. If you want to see rattlesnakes, go turkey hunting in Texas.
But even though they’re common, I’ve never been afraid of them. They’re here, have fear, steer clear and they’ll leave you alone.
Still, it was plain there was a snake somewhere around the old well, which had been dug about 8 feet deep and was ringed with flat limestone rocks layered to keep the sides of the hole from caving in. After getting everyody to shut up for a minute, I mentioned that I could hear a rattler and that the sound appeared to be coming from the well.
Leaning over the hole and giving my eyes time to adjust, I finally could make out the snake lying in some leaf litter at the bottom of the well. Our host Alan Haynes comes from the only good snake is a dead snake school but we managed to hold him off the rattler, which was just lying down there being a snake. He probably is making a pretty good living, too, since there have to be rats and mice and maybe a bat or two moving around among the rocks in the wall of the pit.
That got me wondering why people kill snakes so greedily, even people who wouldn’t kill anything else. I remember some psychology classes from college where I learned that a fear of snakes is acquired, not inherent, and that there’s really no reason for people to be so quick to kill them. Tell that to the thousands that get slit and skinned and turned into belts and buckles at rattlesnake roundups every year.
We still seem to have plenty of rattlesnakes so it’s hard to make a biological case for stopping those mass collections. And people sure love to go there to be scared and to scare the kids but when it comes to roundups so chambers of commerce can make money, I’m on the snakes’ side.
When a rattler falls in a well, does it make a noise

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]