With the amount of brush, vegetation and rock formations we have in Bear Valley Springs, it is only logical that we would also have our share of reptile population.  A good portion of the snakes who share human habitats are harmless, shy creatures who go out of their way to avoid humans and most other animals larger than themselves.

There are, however, a minority of snakes in the area who are not harmless.  Being able to tell the difference is important.  There are only four (4) types of venomous snakes in the United States: the copperhead, the coral snake, the rattlesnake and the water moccasin.  In Bear Valley we may see the occasional rattlesnake.  Rattlesnakes have a distinctively shaped head as shown in the snake pictured above and rattles which vibrate as a warning they are about to strike.

Rattlesnakes are equipped with a set of specialized sensory organs.  While they lack the ability to hear in the normal sense, as they have no ears, they are sensitive to vibrations transmitted through the ground.  They don't have eyelids but their eyes are protected by a transparent covering that is shed when they shed their skin.  Rattlesnakes can "see" heat through the use of facial pits located between the eyes and nostrils.  These organs are so sensitive that they give the snake a thermal picture of an animal, possibly allowing it to distringuish between a potential prey animaland a potential predator, even in complete darkness.  In the light, the thermal image is superimposed over the visual image in the brain of the animal.

The fangs of rattlesnakes lie folded against the roof of the mouth when not in use.  These structures resemble hypodermic needles, being hollow down to their tip.  In the act of striking, the fangs are rotated forward and out.  Fangs last between six to ten weeks before they are replaced by one of us to seven sets in various states of development behind the ones in use.

Rattlesnakes do have some redeeming qualities.  Rattlesnakes help control rodents such as mice, rats and prairie dogs.  So if you don't see any prairie dogs in Bear Valley, you can assume that the rattlesnakes got them.