Howey and his colleagues say timber rattlesnakes bask in sunny areas in order to absorb the heat they need to thrive. Penn State postdoctoral researcher Chris Howey has been looking into it and watching how snakes respond to wildfires. Other scientists are trying to find out if wildfires might actually be a good thing for snakes, opening up a tree canopy and creating more sun-basking opportunities for rattlesnakes. He’s hoping the snakes come back to the fire areas, because removing one animal from such an intricate ecosytem, he said, could have negative effects on other members of that system, including eagles, owls, and badgers who feed on the rattlers. “This is going to be the first study seeing how rattlesnakes are going to be affected by these large-scale events, which are getting more frequent and intense,” said Chase. He planned to track the snakes’ movements a couple of times a week until the devices were removed. Chase wants to know if the snakes, whom he’s embedded with small radio transmitters and data loggers to gauge their body temperature, will stay away from the burned area.
He found them in an area where fire had burned 36 square miles in Kittitas County, according to a report in the Yakima Herald. What happens after the fire is put out? Joey Chase, a graduate student with a keen interest in how wildfires affect rattlers, started tracking two male Northern Pacific rattlesnakes, each about 10 years old. Researchers at Central Washington University wondered what became of critters who had fled a fire zone.
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