one of my corns thinks he\'s a rattler

[Lisa]

The other night I was feeding my snakes and one of the corns got his tail under the newspaper after he had taken his mouse. Thinking nothing of it I got the next snakie out for its feed but the other snake started shaking his tail under the newspaper and it sounded just like a rattle snake.........(((((amazing)))))....well I was amazed anyway.

Has this ever happened to any of you or have I got an unusual snake?

My snakes are so cool, I can't help it but I love em [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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[eddie]

OH WOW!
But very common, sorry. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img]

A lot of snakes do odd things with their tails, either as defense to fool predaters, or as a lure to attract a rodent.
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[najaboy]

This is a common defensive tactic of many North American colubrids. Interestingly enough though, it's also employed by some of the Eurasian ratsnakes.
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[BWSmith]

But here is the million dollar question: Do they rattle their tail to mimic a rattlesnake, or did rattlesnakes develop a rattle to enhance this behavior?
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[eddie]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> But here is the million dollar question: Do they rattle their tail to mimic a rattlesnake, or did rattlesnakes develop a rattle to enhance this behavior?
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Probably easier answered with archelogical findings.
Any idea what the oldest find on a rattler is?

My guess is the rattles were developed due to the behavior.
Thus the behavior being as the fight or flight adrenaline response to a threat, combined with no escape route, with an overflow of adrenaline making the snake shake in nervous fashion in the smallest part of its body.
Over several thousand, to million years, it would make sense that snakes would fine tune this response to better suit them.
And after several thousand, to million years, rattlers, which are not brightly colored as most dangerous things in nature are, developed an audible signal, warning sign, due to their lack of bright colors.
Cottn mouths have their stark white mouth, copper heads have their sometimes brightly colored bodies, others, like coral, have bright colors, but the rattlers, with a few exceptions, like red pygmy, are a drab looking sort.

No science here, just food for thought.......

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[Lisa]

[JuliusSqueezer]

colubrids have been around longer than vipers/pitvipers. I have heard way too many times that colubrids and other non rattlesnakes will rattle to mimic rattlers....but I don't buy it either and go along with the theory that rattlers further developed the rattling technique through eveolution/adaptation. Like naja mentioned, there are colubrids doing this in other parts of the world where there are no rattlesnakes to be found. Besides....when is the last time you ever noticed a snake checking out another snake's behaviour? They normally seem unimpressed by what the others are doing.
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The rattle is definitely an evolutionary adaption to strengthen the effectiveness of the defensive behaviour.

FWIW, my corn will rattle his tail too...
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[JackDanielsBABY]

My corn rattles as well. the first time I saw this was on newspaper and I thought he was hissing at me. But last night I was cleaning his tank (keep in mind he is a little thing) and he was nowhere to be found in the tank. I took everything out looking for him. Well, I had a t-shirt in the tank to let him get use to me and finally after unfolding it he came slithering out like a bat out of #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&. Luckily I caught him and as I did he just kept springing for my hand biting me about 3 times - thank god he's little - and while this was happening he tail was rattling in my hand.

As for the evolution of the rattle - sure - whatever.....
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