{"id":386,"date":"2011-07-28T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/?p=386"},"modified":"2011-07-28T08:03:07","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T14:03:07","slug":"timber-rattlersnakes-and-river-bluffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/timber-rattlersnakes-and-river-bluffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Timber Rattlersnakes and River Bluffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A hiker recently hospitalized \u00a0after a rattlesnake bite near Caledonia is a rare reminder that there really are rattlesnakes in most Mississippi River blufflands.<\/p>\n

My experience with the snakes while hiking
\nis that they do NOT flee a hiker, but\u00a0lie still in hopes that we will not see them. Generally, when we do see them, they are laying in the sun on, or at the side of,\u00a0the hiking path. If we are lucky, they rattle — but only as a last resort. \u00a0And not every snake will offer that warning.<\/p>\n

My experience is that they blend into the background so completely they are almost impossible to see without a warning rattle.\u00a0Coloration of a rattlesnake will vary from gray tones (when they live in limestone areas) to the normal tans and browns or yellows. But the triangular head, and the distinctly black tail with rattles are diagnostic.<\/p>\n

I was hiking with a ranger in the bluffs in Missouri on one occasion and he leaned over to pick up a bit of litter… “Oh, shoot,” he said quietly, and slowly pulled away \u00a0his outstretched arm. The “litter” was in fact a coiled, nearly gray and white rattlesnake. It did not offer a rattle.<\/p>\n

So if you are hiking in the bluffs, stay alert.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A hiker recently hospitalized \u00a0after a rattlesnake bite near Caledonia is a rare reminder that there really are rattlesnakes in most Mississippi River blufflands. My experience with the snakes while hiking is that they do NOT flee a hiker, but\u00a0lie … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-upper-mississippi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}