A baby garter snake just born (a half hour old). Photo by Jan Macek

By JAN MACEK
Los Alamos

Baby (neonate) snake season will start any time now and will continue until early to mid September.

So please know that bull snake and coachwhip babies and other species are being hatched from eggs. You also may see female live-bearing snakes such as garter snakes and rattlesnakes seeking a place to give birth. Baby rattlesnakes will not have developed rattles yet but will have what is called a “button” at the end of the tail. Every time the youngster sheds, it will develop a rattle.

All neonates will seek shelter, shed their skin, and then seek out their first meal. You might find the babies close to your house foundation or in your garden. etc. So, if you are working in the garden or yard, always be aware that there could be baby rattlesnakes or any snake, adult or neonate, because gardens are a good place to hide and in order to shed, snakes need water. Always look before you put your hands where you cannot see what could be hidden.

If you do not want snakes on your property or find a rattlesnake, please call police dispatch at 5050.662.8222 to have them relocated. But please try to co-exist with the nonvenomous ones!

If you see baby snakes or any snake, admire them from a distance and keep your pets away from them. If you have children, please teach them to respect the snakes and leave them in nature where they belong. Best thing to teach children is to leave all snakes alone.

We do have the Hantavirus, Plague and Lyme disease and snakes protect us against those diseases by eating rodents that carry these diseases. So, before you say eek or you hate snakes or something else negative about snakes, just remember that venom from rattlesnakes is being used in medicine to help us humans.

Please note that many nonvenomous snakes will mimic a rattlesnake; they can flatten their head, coil and strike plus they can vibrate their tail and bull snakes can make a sound very much like a rattlesnake’s rattle. Nature’s creatures are astounding at what they can do to protect themselves. And all you need to do is just leave them alone or have the venomous ones relocated.

In a few months, snakes will be seeking places to brumate for the winter so be kind to them until then.

There is just so much to learn about snakes so please educate yourselves. http://www.nmherpsociety.org/reptiles/snakes/index.html is a good website to learn about snakes in our area as well as New Mexico.

Snakes are fascinating and shy creatures that just want to be left alone.

Baba Dioum — ‘In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.’

This is a baby coachwhip just recently hatched and found in someone’s shower. The lady thought it was a rattlesnake. It is very rare to see these coachwhip neonates. Photo by Jan Macek

A bull snake adult and neonate. Photo by Jan Macek

A neonate prairie rattlesnake that was run over. RIP little guy. Photo by Jan Macek