The rattle is obviously a warning but the language of retreat and hiding is obviously non-threatening. Rattlesnakes seem to say, “I don’t want to fight but if you make me, I’m prepared to defend myself.”
There are at least 32 species of rattlesnakes and 83 subspecies, divided between the two genera of Crotalus and Sistrurus.
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A Tierrasanta man is recovering after surviving not one, but two rattlesnake bites.
https://www.10news.com/news/local-man-bitten-twice-in-showdown-with-rattlesnake
The fifth annual California Invasive Species Action Week is scheduled Saturday, June 2, through Sunday, June 10. Action Week is a statewide event that promotes public participation in the fight against invasive species that harm our environment, agriculture and native species.
Staff from the Oakland Zoo team up with National Park Service to reintroduce endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs into alpine lakes in Sequoia National Park.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/state/california/article212531314.html
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http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/state/california/article212531314.html#storylink=cpy
Back in the early 1900s, the frogs’s population numbered in the hundreds of thousands from the Fraser Valley down into Northern California, but the B.C. population has since declined as much as 90 per cent, and the species has become locally extinct in California and endangered in Oregon.
June 12, 2018 – Scientists working in the Santa Monica mountains of California recently announced that endangered red-legged frogs are successfully breeding on their own in four streams there, for the first time since the 1970s. It’s a huge success for a reintroduction program that began four years ago – and an important story about water quality.
American landowners are about to discover how sacrosanct private property is—or isn’t. Grinding against the edges of government power, a benchmark legal battle is ready for the Supreme Court. The potentially historic case features the expanding scope of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and will either pile on tremendous muscle to federal agency jurisdiction or bolster individual property owner claims.
https://www.agweb.com/mobile/article/frog-or-foul-scotus-weighs-historic-esa-case/
Threats to the species include habitat loss, pollution, non-native predators and the deadly amphibian disease chytridiomycosis.
The late spring and early summer always seem to bring out rattlesnakes on my property. I have two dogs and I am worried about them and myself. I have heard you need a fishing license to kill one, even if it is on your own property. Is that true?
Is there a best time/season to hear frogs and amphibians calling? I’ve heard new moons are best because the frogs are less afraid of predators.
https://baynature.org/article/does-the-moon-phase-affect-frog-calls/
