Across northern Colorado, flowers are blooming and the snow is melting. With the spring also comes the return of rattlesnakes and a popular webcam that captures a massive den of one of Colorado’s most spotted snakes.
Located somewhere near Fort Collins, this mega den is said to have as many as 2,000 rattlesnakes. The webcam is part of a research project called “Project RattleCam.”
Researchers from California Polytechnic State University and Dickinson College in Pennsylvania are behind the project. According to their website, the biologists are working to “raise awareness about rattlesnakes, their behavior, and their importance in the ecosystem.”
Two cameras are part of the project. One is in Northern Colorado at an undisclosed location. Researchers say this is to protect the den and the animals that call it home. The other is in California, which is still hibernating at the moment.
The cameras allow researchers to study the animals without disturbing them. It’s also a way to gain the public’s support by sharing the feed online.
In Colorado, many of these snakes will be pregnant through the summer and await giving birth. Unlike other snakes, rattlesnakes give birth to live babies. They then spend weeks caring for their young and helping to keep them warm. Typically, snakes live alone, but during this period, they live in a den, which becomes a nursery or “rookeries.”
“If you have a whole bunch of expectant mothers together, they don't all give birth exactly at the same time,” Scott Boback, professor of biology at Dickinson College and co-leader of Project RattleCam, told NPR last year. “Essentially, what you have is the opportunity for other mothers to babysit for the mother that actually has given birth to those pups.”
The California camera is expected to be operational by July.
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