My son and I were exploring a field full of Milkweeds when I spotted a Gopher Snake in the grass. It stayed so still I thought it might be dead. Then, when I got within a foot, it unleashed its Rattlesnake imitation. Not only does the coloration resemble the Western Rattlesnake found around here, but when disturbed it will also his, coil up, rattle it's tail and spread the rear part of its jaws to make its head more triangular. It has no rattle, so when the tail vibrates in dry leaves, it sounds very much like a rattler.
We played around with the snake for a few minutes since there were no easy escape routes. I got photos of it in several interesting positions, then picked up for my son to take a few photos. When I released it, it crawled off and found cover about 20 feet away. When we found it, it was pretty exposed to any bird of prey or other potential predator and was probably protected mostly by its adaptive coloration and by remaining still. Unfortunately, this snake's act is so convincing that many of them are killed by people mistaking them for Rattlesnakes. And some people hate all snakes. But as predators on small mammals and birds, they are a pretty important part of the food web.
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