iStockphoto / johnaudrey
It wasn’t until today that I ever wondered what snakes do during a hail storm. Coincidentally, I did find myself wondering about what deer do during a hail storm last week when I was roadtripping 2,000+ miles and drove through some nasty weather and passed a ton of deer.
Now, thanks to the Project RattleCam, I know what rattlesnakes do during a hail storm: they seek shelter immediately because getting pounded by hail is no fun and then they come back and slurp the hail as a water source.
I came across this video over on USA Today and I’m glad I watched because as an outdoors enthusiast this is a rare phenomenon I’m not sure I ever would’ve seen in life without this Project RattleCam footage. As far as rattlesnake footage goes, it’s not particularly unnerving or scary in any way. But it’s fascinating to see how these creatures react in extreme weather:
This hail storm apparently happened with the air temperature was a balmy 81 degrees. So it’s not as if the weather was teetering on an early Summer freeze in Colorado. It was properly warm for the region.
After this video, I got curious and checked out YouTube for footage of deer in hail storms and curiously, they don’t seem to be bothered much at all. I’m sure they’d prefer to not be stuck in a hail storm but this deer doesn’t seem like it’s in much of a hurry to hide out from the hail:
The rattlesnake trail cam is capturing some interesting footage that humans might otherwise never see. For instance, this video of a baby rattlesnake fending off attacking ants, or this video of a rattlesnake ‘getting annoyed by garter snakes’ and lashing out:
The species in these videos and the hail storm video are Prairie Rattlesnakes but according to USA Today’s article, Project RattleCam is expected to launch a new rattlesnake camera in California as soon as next month.