How rattlesnakes fool you into thinking they’re right underfoot

Evolution at work, there… although every time I encounter a rattlesnake, it really is right underfoot.  Both of us always seem equally surprised, too.

When I was 18 or 19, I had a summer job where a friend and I were given machetes and told to chop down every thistle stalk in the fields and hills surrounding the subdivision. What could possibly go wrong?!? We ended up running into several snakes that summer and I can attest, that sound does work like a charm.

Due to them spooking me every time, I learned the smell of rattlesnakes, which alerts me even sooner. It’s a pretty strong B.O./sage/juniper scent which I imagine is lodged somewhere in the reptile/monkey part of my brain.