I’ve been searching for timber rattlesnakes since February, and have been completely unsuccessful. For reference, I’m based in south East Texas, and the last and only timber I’ve seen was 11 years ago when my dad took me hunting in October. The year before and in the exact same locality, he saw a whole bunch of timbers throughout the year, and he saw even more last year. I wasn’t fit or conditioned to go with him at that time since it’s pretty far into the woods and on a trail that is thick with overgrowth from lack of use and maintenance. But this year, I’ve conditioned myself so that I could also go with him and see the timbers for myself.

Unfortunately, it’s been dead quiet all year. Haven’t seen a single one. My dad didn’t see any for the whole first half of the year. And usually, he would see them most often in April and May. Then on one day in mid July, I wasn’t able to go with him due to my job, and that was when he saw 2 of them, the only day this year he saw any at all. Since then, I’ve been going back there as often as I can for the past 2 months, but still haven’t been successful. And with October almost over, I’m fearing I won’t have a chance to see any at all until Spring next year.

I just find it weird how they were super abundant for 2 years, and now it’s almost dead quiet. I’ve seen 5 other snake species in there for this year. And almost no one actually hunts and hikes in there besides my dad, at least not regularly throughout the year. And also now me.

Spent 5 days in Fraser’s Hill solo, searching for as many herps as possible. Heres some of the highlights.

Hey y'all,

I recently finished building a small backyard water feature and found my first visitor taking a swim! Happy for this small achievement. I'm not well-versed in identifying species, so as an aside, could one of you help with the species and/or the sex of this sweet frog friend? Location: north Texas.

Thank you!

We spent 3 weeks observing and filming Nose-horned vipers (Vipera ammodytes) hunting migratory birds. The result? A new short documentary called When the Bushes Have Eyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXg3jeDIHBY

I'm very curious what Europeans thought of the snakes in North America when they were first exploring the area but haven't found too much information on it. Can anybody point me in the direction of some sources on this. I'd love to see some early illustrations, accounts, and science, if it's out there.

I found an early description of Rattlesnakes when they were all thought to be one species, and of course Timber Rattlesnakes became a symbol of the 13 colonies during the American revolution but that's about all I've found.

I suppose the name "Crotalus horridus" gives me a pretty good idea what they thought of them though lol.

Found this Northern Green Frog Female, and she was a lot darker than the other frogs we saw. Is she melanistic, or is she just extra dark to camouflage into the mud? ​Her stomach was normal color, but her eyes were really dark compared to other green frogs I've seen.

She's a really cool looking frog either way!​

Check out the incredible iris pattern on this Painted Saw-scaled Viper (Echis coloratus).

The pattern of its "granite phase" scales continues completely uninterrupted right across the irises. Because the head patterning is highly asymmetrical, it actually gives the snake one grey iris and one pink iris to perfectly match the specific scales surrounding each side!

Southern Arava, Israel

(Ithaca NY)

I recently moved back to Florida and have been enthralled all over again with the lizards here like I was as a kid. As embarrassing as it is to say, at 30, I still like catching brown anoles when I see them on our lanai just as much as I did as a kid. I release them after a moment or so. My aunt has been humored by it a bit, but today when I went to show her an anole I had caught, she said “you’re tormenting those things! They don’t want to be held!” which made me feel guilty. Should I just stop altogether?

We really only have a 1hr long window to cruise roads in the evening just to temperatures plummeting to quickly as the sun goes down but I have found my 2nd Pygmy, and a bunch of little cotton mouths. STILL NO CORAL SNAKE :/.

A podcast with Sara Ruane from the Field Museum!

See also: The study as it was published in the journal Frontiers in Ethology

I took this photo on a clearing while walking through the forest in summer

Spotted in Stuart Florida

I was out rock hounding today and when I'm searching, I make it a point to not disturb the wet leaves around in the location while I'm on the ground. Saw this little one wriggle out of the leaves beside me just long enough for me to snap a pic with my poor quality cell phone camera. Very excited as I don't find salamanders often and this was a new species for me.

I did not disturb any of the habitat nor the salamander for anyone wondering.

Grumpy pants bit me for rescuing them from the dogs .
10/10

Edit for location:
Shawnee County Kansas, USA

Got a lot of comments in another post saying jousting, but these two western diamond backs in central Arizona in October weren't very rambunctious, and they eventually ended up curled under a bush for a good 7 minutes before separating.

They did display some "pinning" behavior but overall it was mostly just curled tails and some head lifting.

I have other videos that were more calm, but wanted to see what the consensus was.