Note: My wife killed this gopher snake with her weedeater while clearing grass in our pond garden. The weedeater string cut it open and a mouse it had killed and swallowed flew out of its stomach. Notice how much bigger the mouse is than the snake diameter. It is amazing how much snakes can stretch to swallow their prey. (She would have avoided killing it if she had been able to confirm that it was not a rattlesnake before she killed it.)
Note: The head can deliver a poisonous bite 20 minutes after being cut off from the body. So we smash and bury the head. Other wild critters then quickly recycle of the body. Also, the body will strike out for quite a long time even without its head. A worrisome possibility is that as we kill off rattlesnakes, we may be selecting against the ones that rattle and missing those that don't! If you are interested in eating rattlesnake meat, be aware that a rattlesnake might bite itself to poison its flesh.
Last updated: September 29, 2019
