Predators I Have Known - Alan Dean Foster [51]
But when visitors to Arizona and the American Southwest think of dangerous local carnivores, the rattlesnake is the creature far more likely to spring to mind than the coyote. Once again, we have to recognize the fact that as humans we are more visually than intellectually oriented. While the coyote’s stealth, ability to hunt in packs, natural cunning, size, and penchant for picking off household pets make it the far more dangerous predator, its resemblance to human’s best friend, its warm-bloodedness, and the fact that its natural ferocity has been disarmed by decades of appearances as a hapless cartoon character mean that the poor rattler is the one that consistently suffers from a bad press.
Whereas a hungry coyote is a threat to anything it is capable of carrying off, even a starving rattlesnake would rather slither away than bite. Despite their far greater numbers, the few serious encounters that take place each year between humans and rattlers can invariably be attributed to accident or stupidity (human stupidity, the snake invariably grading out higher on the intelligence scale when the particulars of such encounters are closely examined).
All rattlers are poisonous, the most dangerous being the green, or Mojave, rattlesnake. You would think this widely known fact would be sufficient, at least in Arizona, to discourage humans from initiating contact with them. Yet visitors to the desert and mountains, who by their very existence set new standards for redefining the word fool, persist in trying to pick them up by their tails, deliberately annoy them by throwing objects at them to make them rattle, or in dim-witted displays of misplaced machismo taunt them while at the same time seeing how close they can dance without being bitten. Try any of that with your average five-year-old and you’re likely to get bit, too.
Though we live in prime rattlesnake territory, over the decades, we have had very few encounters with them. Despite what you tend to see in film and on television, rattlesnakes actually prefer not to bite. It takes food and energy and time to manufacture venom—venom that is more efficaciously employed in catching food. If you should happen to come across a rattler, slowly back away from it, turn around, and leave the area as quickly as you can. Both you and the snake will be happy that you did. Almost all rattlesnake bites are accidents resulting from hikers not seeing the snake. Step on any animal, however inadvertently, and it is guaranteed to bite.
Of course, when you come home one day with an armful of groceries and there’s a rattler as big around as your arm lying on the flagstone directly in front of your front door, you are confronted with a conundrum that cannot be so easily avoided. It’s a situation your typical urban dweller never has to face.
As it happened, I didn’t have to face it, either.
My wife was returning home with a couple of male friends of ours. Before she could intervene or even be made aware of the snake’s presence, they had killed it with rocks. Deciding that they would have a good giggle at her expense, as she returned to the front door to let them in, they confronted her with the dead snake, waving it up and down while uttering what they presumed to be scary noises.
My wife hails from west-central Texas. If you grow up in the country in west-central Texas, every time you step out your front door, you are as likely to encounter a rattlesnake as you are a neighbor. Raised with this likelihood in mind, children in that part of the