Audrey Faix, age 11, of Fu1lErton, Pa., for her question:
Can you tell the age of a rattlesnake?
Andy says that it is fine to be curious about everything, even about the rattlesnake. But always, always keep in mind that this sneaky fellow has a deadly bite. It is true that you can get a rough idea of his age from the rattle at the tail end of his snaky body. But never, never examine this noisy tail unless you are quite surf the owner is no longer living.
The examination of a rattler's rattle must be an autopsy which is to say that the patient must be dead. The rattlesnake is often lazy and logy, especially after eating, and you just might mistake a dozing rattler for a dead rattler so, before we examine his tail, let's ask a herpetologist to give him a death certificate. A herpetologist is a reptile expert who knows more snaky secrets than we do. The rattler's rattle is a row of bony buttons on the end of his tapering tail. The buttons are like graceful little turrets fitted neatly one on top of another. The rattling noise is made when the snake shakes or vibrates his tail so that the bony little buttons bang against each other. The rattle is never more than a few inches long, but it can be heard for a hundred yards.
A rattlesnake hatches from an egg, and the youngster has the beginnings of his rattle before he crawls forth to face the world. There is one putty colored button at the tail end of his small body. More buttons will be added as he grows older, and the string of buttons will gradually darken to a muddy greenish brown or gray.
A snake with eight darkish rattle buttons is older than a snake with three pale buttons. But the number of buttons cannot tell us exactly how many birthdays the snake has had. Non experts often think that the rattler adds one button to his tail every year, but this is not so. Those who know a little more about snakes may say that the rattler adds a button every time he sheds his skin, which may be two or three times a year. But experts say that the rattler may shed without adding to his rattle.
On a young snake, the buttons taper to a point. An older snake often 10ses the tip of his rattle with no.one knows how many buttons. A rattle with six dark buttons and no tapering tip may belong to a 12 year old snake who has shed his skin perhaps 30 times.
The bony buttons of the rattler's rattle can be shaken 108e when the vibrating tail strikes a stone. Most if not all grown rattlers lose sc11e of their bony tail sections as they go through life, and a successful rattlesnake may live to enjoy 15 to 20 birthdays. Each species reaches a certain length, and this can tell us that he is old enough to have stopped growing. The rattle can tell us that the Snake is young, middle aged or an old grandpa of a snake.