TIMMERMAN: CROTALUSADAMANTEUS ON ORDWAY PRESERVE


the sand. Apparently the only annoyance which this indignity caused the snake
accrued from the mouth-full of sand which it got, for it never sounded its rattle and
made no attempt to strike, but merely gaped and twisted its jaws."
 As long ago as the late 1700's, Bartram recognized that, more often than not,
the diamondback was a "wonderful creature" that is "never known to strike until he
is first assaulted or fears himself in danger" (Bartram 1928). In only 9 of my 743
visits to diamondback locations was the rattling behavior elicited. In 6 cases the
snake was in open terrain, crawling or stretched out, and in 2 cases the snake was
in the opaque stage of ecdysis, a situation which tends to make many species
nervous (pers. observ.). In no case did any of the snakes make an attempt to strike
or bite me while I was tracking them to their locations. Occasionally, due to
carelessness on my part, I stepped very close to, or over the top of, coiled
diamondbacks, affording them ample provocation to strike in self-defense.
 Such passive behavior seems to be typical today, but it should be recognized
that intense selection has probably been at work on the rattlesnake's more
aggressive nature by humans. An easily agitated diamondback, quick to sovmd its
rattle, may be perfectly adapted for living peacefully with some of the large,
slow-moving, hoofed mammals of the Pleistocene age, but it is not adapted for
living in harmony with humans in the 20th century.

 Mortality.- Two radio-tagged snakes died during the study. At 1050 on 13
Jan 1988 I tracked M4 to his winter den site at an armadillo burrow in a small
palmetto thicket near Goose Lake. The snake was found dead, about 3 m from the
burrow, lying on its back. The anterior portion of the head was battered and both
functional fangs were missing. One small hole had been made through the dorsum
of the head--the rest of the body was not damaged. The right fang, with part of the
maxillary bone, lay close to the head. After an investigation of the corpse and its
vicinity, I concluded that the snake had been killed by an enemy that does not eat
snakes, a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Deer tracks were commonly
seen leading down from the main clay road to this area, and a fresh set of tracks
were discovered that day.
 Deer have been reported to kill snakes since at least 150 B.C. (Nicander
 1953); this behavior is not restricted to Old World deer species (Klauber 1972).
 Klauber corresponded with various outdoorsmen across the United States who
 personally witnessed the killing of rattlesnakes by native deer, some as far south as
 Mississippi and Louisiana. To my knowledge, this behavior has never been
 witnessed in Florida.
 On 28 May 1988 I tracked F2 to a xeric hammock on the property of Dr. D.
 A. Sanders. I discovered that the snake had been killed and eaten. The snake had
 last been seen alive 6 days earlier. The carcass, consisting of the skeleton with a
 little dried tissue adhering to it, was approximately 10 m from the snake's last
 location. The head and tail were missing, otherwise the carcass was intact and the
 skeleton was articulated. The transmitter, connected to the carcass by its antenna