Every spring, more than 2,000 rattlesnakes crawl out of a rocky hillside in Colorado—and thanks to a livestream known as RattleCam, you can watch them all in one place, without leaving your couch (or risking a venomous bite).
The mega den, located on private property at an undisclosed location, is home to one of the largest known concentrations of prairie rattlesnakes in North America. It went viral last year when the livestream racked up 2.5 million views and drew in over 180,000 people in a single day. Now, it’s back—and so are the snakes.
Most of the females emerging from hibernation are pregnant. Over the next few months, they’ll shed their skins, sun themselves on the rocks, and eventually give birth to litters of up to 17 baby snakes each. RattleCam will be streaming the whole thing.
“This is a great way to show people what rattlesnakes actually do,” said Owen Bachhuber, a grad student at Cal Poly and one of the scientists behind the project. “They’re not aggressive monsters. They’re just animals doing their thing.”
That “thing” mostly involves coiling up in groups, basking, mating, and occasionally slithering across the screen in pairs. To keep things engaging, the RattleCam team has started naming individual snakes—like Lasagna, who folds herself in layers, and Twitchy, a restless male who’s known for showing off around females.
Of course, it’s entertaining, but that’s not entirely the point. Researchers use the livestream to study behavior patterns, track individual snakes by their scale markings (which are as distinct as fingerprints), and crowdsource observations through a community science project. There has even been a “Name a Snake” contest for viewers who want to get involved.
The stream is still operated manually—yes, someone physically adjusts a tripod all day—and it runs entirely on donations. With government funding for wildlife research shrinking, public support is keeping it online.
So if you’ve ever wondered what a giant den of rattlesnakes looks like in real-time, RattleCam.org has you covered. It’s strange, it’s oddly calming, and it might just be the best way to “zone out” for a while.
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