I walked 47 miles of barbed wire,
Used a cobra snake for a neck tie.
Got a brand new house on the roadside,
Made out of rattlesnake hide.
I got a brand new chimney made on top,
Made out of human skulls.
Now come on darling let's take a little walk, tell me,
Who do you love

No, I wouldn't consider myself part of "gun culture"... I do believe I have the right to defend my family in my own home. My rant here was from a day of reading nasty comments towards Heston during a tribute for him I was attempting.

My shotgun? It actually belonged to my Dad. Growing up in a rural southern area (SC USA), it was always loaded with buckshot to take out rattlesnakes around the yard.

My dad gave most of his guns to my brothers when he was sick, but still held onto the shotgun.

On his deathbed a week before he passed, he gave the shotgun to my husband. It meant a lot to him... to both of us.

It it always unloaded, with no shells near by for curious ones to find

redtailed hawks are probably the most common bird of prey in north america. that doesn't make them any less bad ass. also a diamond back rattlesnake isnt even close to some of the most venomous creatures on earth. There are creatures that are literally thousands of times more venomous. hemotoxins are horrible at killing larger animals, such as humans.

Looks like a gophersnake.
Ground squirrels and rattle snakes are an impressive example of coevolution. Adults of some species/populations, are immune to rattlesnake venom, but their pups aren't.. and snakes love to eat them.
Adult ground squirrels (and several other ground-dwelling rodents) actively signal at snakes to let them know that the snake has been spotted, and will get bit to shit if he tries to eat that squirrel's pups.
Recently it was demonstrated that ground squirrels can even heat up their tail when they see a snake.. sending such a signal to pit-vipers which can 'see' in near-infared.
..and there are tons more cool stories:
Squirrels disguise their scent by chewing on rattlesnake skin!
and
A nice little article.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'diamondback, rattle snake, mating, ritual, hobbit, hehehe' to 'diamondback, rattlesnake, snake, mating, ritual, habit' - edited by my15minutes

all damn day, eh? i'm jealous.

hmm. wonder if i've got time to draw a rattlesnake, with a cigarette and a drowsy smile...

wow! and it took ONLY 40 years!? i can easily imagine, as Farhad said, all animals on the planet domesticated - but not by us but by the evolutionary forces themselves. I mean, look at venomous snakes for example - it certainly would be a survival trait for the rattlesnakes if they became so accustomed to people that they'd simply ignore us and not immediately put up a defensive stance, wouldn't it? cause then we'd probably be less afraid of a chance encounter with one and would likely kill less of them just because of our built-in fear of snakes - ergo, snakes have a lot to gain by becoming friedlier to humans, right? weird logic, i know, but it led me to ask myself if we will ever be able to domesticise (so-called) lower life forms like bugs or even bacteria. domesticated ants would also be a good idea. imagine your house is infested with thermites. you just send in a squad of your domesticated killer-ants from your local petshop to forcefuly evict them or order a colony of flesh-eating bacteria to finish them off...

Cobra bites are no joke. neither are rattlesnake bites. Here's the story of one young man's rattlesnake ordeal: http://www.rattlesnakebite.org/index.htm

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