Watching a live stream featuring a rhumba of rattlesnakes may not be everyone’s idea of an engaging past-time, but there are people out there who are doing just that.
Admittedly, many of them are scientists with a strong interest in the reptile, though everybody is invited to drop by the live stream showing as many as 2,000 rattlesnakes slithering around at the site in northern Colorado.
Emily Taylor, a California Polytechnic State University biology professor leading the Project RattleCam research, told the Associated Press (AP) that the rattlesnake den “is one of the biggest we know of.” Researchers set up Project RattleCam a couple of months ago using multiple cameras to cover lots of angles.
The aim of the project is to learn more about rattlesnakes and raise awareness about the creature, its behavior, and its importance in the ecosystem.
The live stream enables scientists to observe snake behavior around the clock and at a distance that doesn’t cause any interference. With the stream open to everyone, citizen scientists have also been getting in touch when they spot something of interest, help that’s proved useful for the researchers, especially if they miss something.
The den is at a high altitude, and at this time of year only pregnant female snakes are at the site as the males and females that aren’t pregnant spend time at lower elevations close by.
The AP’s report points out that in contrast to other snakes, rattlesnake mothers take of their young, shielding them from predators. “Rattlesnakes are actually really good mothers, people don’t know that,” Taylor said.
At the time of writing, around 250 people were observing what appeared to be a rattlesnake dozing among some rocks. While the website gets a steady stream of visitors, a spike in visits is expected after the pups are born in the late summer. The researchers are also interacting with comments left on the chat stream throughout the day.
Taylor described the research as “truly is a group effort, a community science effort, that we couldn’t do on our own as scientists.”
Some nature-focused live streams have been going for years. Digital Trends reported on one in 2012 showing bears in an Alaskan river, and the live stream continues to this day.