Rattlesnakes In Trees

John sends this really cool article:

A growing number of Facebook posts this summer show rattlesnakes not only climb trees when the mood strikes them, but they’re good at it.

Among the earliest of the posts was on July 4, when Jerome Perez of New Mexico shared video of a nearly 6-foot rattlesnake in the top of a mesquite tree, east of San Antonio, New Mexico.

Perez told McClatchy News he was hiking with his 11-year-old son Joshua and girlfriend, Gabby, when she noticed something odd in a tree 100 feet away. His video of the sight had been viewed 177,000 times on Facebook as of Aug. 18.

“Yes, it was crazy!” he said. “I was amazed we were seeing such an unheard of occurrence. The snake was up high, soaking up the early morning sun, but his rattler was going at high speed. A small sparrow was flapping frantically in front of the snake, trying to keep it from a nest likely hidden in the tree.”

Perez said they did to not intervene and left the rattlesnake “unharmed” after 5 minutes of watching to see what happened next.