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How far can a rattlesnake strike? Is it half its body or a third of its body. So a 6 foot rattlesnake can strike 3 feet or 2 feet?

ron

I'd have to say that depends on both the taxonomic grouping of rattlesnake(i.e.-atrox clade, horridus clade, etc.) and the circumstances of the situation. Altough, it would be dangerous to assume that any given species had a distinct striking distance that is proportionate to the body length. For instance, I've seen large adult timbers strike about 2/3 their body length, without uncoiling themselves in the process. All in all, it is not a subject that should be generalized.

VERY WELL SAID. I coudldn't agree with you more.

I think people run into trouble when they develop a sense of false security when you start generalizing the length a snake can strike.

Way too many factors to consider...

>>How far can a rattlesnake strike? Is it half its body or a third of its body. So a 6 foot rattlesnake can strike 3 feet or 2 feet?

Depends hugely on a number of factors: temperature, extent of agitation of the snake, species (C. durissus have surprised me with their range on a few occasions), substrate they are sitting on, downhill or uphill, size of snake, etc. Thus, there is no precise measure.

Cheers,

Wolfgang
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I have observed my c.atrox in many different positions over the last three years. Sometimes he is in a position that would only allow less than half his body length to shoot forward, however, he has a position he gets into from time to time where only about a fourth of his body is touching the ground in a very tight half circle. The rest of his four foot body is in a continual S curve that could realy reach out and touch somebody. As a previous post stated its not a general answer. Alot of different factors effect how far they can reach out. But a pist off snake will definatly want to make contact, where a snake just wanting you to back off will put on a show and strike out half cocked. So I would say that strikeing distance is different for each situation, even with the same snake.But thats my humble opinion. Skinner

Like everyone here says it is usually half or less the body lenght depending on species and conditions. But I have seen exceptions. I have seen a molossus that could clear the ground and exceed its full body length. This last April while visiting my abyssus den I saw two females with strike ranges that exceeded their body lengths. One was very comical as she would leave the ground when she struck. She would recoil while in midair but flip over each time and land on her back while coiled. She looked like she was just doing somersaults. This population is very small as they are in a very hot arid area well away from water. Most adults are only 18" long and would be taken for concolor if the DNA and range didn't say other wise. One little female about 16 inches in length struck as I was taking my pack off. She left the ground completely extended like a little missle and hit my pack at about 24" above ground level and was then left dangling with her fangs embedded in my pack. First time I saw a rattlesnake fly!

What a great description. Thanks. I have seen cantils and cottonmouths both do this. We called it the tiddly-wink strike. One cantil, who was about 16" long, would launch himself whenever someone entered the room. He would hit the bottom of the screen top of his 10 gal aquarioum in a coil upside down, land on his back, right himself and do it again for several strikes. He was a great snake to break in new keepers with.

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I'm evil. When I've been called in to retrieve a rattler that's wandered into Biped Territory, I lie to the knot of terrified bipeds clustered foolishly around the snake. I tell them that the critter can strike its full body length. That makes for a nice visual, watching grown adults in unison jumping back about twelve feet! It's better than watching synchronized swimming.......

My research with Crotalus atrox has found that, under laboratory conditions, the predatory strike of this species involves approximately 30% of their overall body length. This percentage does not change as snakes increase their body size (range of snakes measured 0.35-1.2 meters). These body percentage numbers were roughly similar to percentages I found in predatory strikes in adults of 5 other species of rattlesnake (C. lepidus, C. viridis, C. willardi, S. catenatus, S. miliarius; I haven't quantified percentages from molossus and horridus yet). [Also of potential interest: average linear distance covered in a predatory strike was less than 10 cm (~4 inches) and defensive strikes in young adult atrox involved 40% of the overall body length.]

Whether these numbers translate to what actually occurs in the field could be the next step in this research. Snakes do lots of different things in the wild (I've seen some wild/goofy strikes just in C. atrox), and as far as I know, they don't read books or the current literature to keep up on what they should be doing!

travis

I have a lepidus that reads books Travis, although it's not herpetology related reading.

I'd like to hear more on the predatory strike being so much less than defense? I would have thought that with long term captives it would be just the opposite, at least with the good feeders!

Re: lepidus reading: how did he ever manage to turn the pages?

I atributed the difference between predatory vs. defensive strike distances to a couple of things for which I really have no data (read handwaving): from my 2002 paper - "shorter strike distances could improve fang placement whereas strikes from greater distances may reduce the chance of harmful interactions with aggressors: the precision of the predatory strike might not be needed would trying to deter would-be attackers."

There's lots to still look at in these snakes!

travis

Hey Travis,
Been away all week...

As to the reading... All he has to do to turn the page is defecate. Then I replace the paper in his cage bottom with the next page of the book. Do I have to explain everything?

Also, I'll wait til a bucket of suds, a face to face with a handful of mice, and some good old fashioned samples in a jar to discuss this feeding stuff! Interesting. Smooches, H

Hey Travis,
Been away all week...

As to the reading... All he has to do to turn the page is defecate. Then I replace the paper in his cage bottom with the next page of the book. Do I have to explain everything?

Also, I'll wait til a bucket of suds, a face to face with a handful of mice, and some good old fashioned samples in a jar to discuss this feeding stuff! Interesting. Smooches, H

... and I know because I had one go from the other side of a very large cage into the back of my hand when I grabbed for a light fixture that was falling toward a couple babies.

Let's just say ... I felt that one in the morning.

"Clean" Phil