As springtime tempeartues begin, some of the more scally, limbless residents of the San Francisco Bay Area are coming out to sun on popular walking paths.
San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area recently saw the proverbial mercury rise to seasonal highs. Zip codes in SF caught temperatures regularly in the mid-70s late last week and this past weekend; more inland cities saw temperatures even in the 80s. With the deluge of clear skies and warm weather, people took to parks and hiking trails, sponging up the springtime weather.
But the recent spate of pleasant weather has also meant limbless reptiles, particularly rattlesnakes, coming out of their less active winter resting, crossing paths with us bipedal mammals going about our business.
“Spotted on the trail: a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake doing what rattlesnakes do best—soaking up the sun and minding its own business,” reads an Instagram post from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). The snake was spotted in the Marin Headland where it was absorbing the sun’s radiation to warm up; unlike us mammals, which are endothermic, meaning we can produce our own body heat, reptiles are ectothermic and, therefore, rely on outside sources to regulate body temperature.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, only the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, also referred to as the Western rattlesnake, is native. However, some biologists and herpetologists suspect there is perhaps subspeciation within the species; the most cited and respected case of this is with a population of Pacific rattlesnakes found on Mare Island, which exhibit different dorsal colorings and patterings … and, anecdotally, are less likely to rattle than other populations of Western rattlesnakes.
(The latter behavioral adaptation is an example of rapid-fire evolution where external factors force certain niche adaptations to essentially hyperdrive into population norms; “silent rattlesnakes” are common in areas in the midwest and south that see the tens of thousands of these animals culled annually for either sport or entertainment during rattlesnake roundups; “louder” rattles snakes are easier to find and hunt down, while those less likely to rattle have better odds of avoiding human hunters.)
GGNRA also waxed the importance of having these native animals around, as they remain a keystone species that help “keep rodent populations in check” — “rattlesnakes are an important part of the Marin Headlands ecosystem, helping keep rodent populations in check.
Like any wild animal, they’re more afraid of you than you are of them. As such, always admire from a distance — “give it space, not stress.”
“Most snake encounters end peacefully when we respect their place in the wild,” continues GGNRA.
