Colorado Rattlesnake 'Mega Den' Bursting with Even More Snakes Following Weeks of Births

Mar. 15, 2025

Young snakes at Colorado rattlesnake den captured on Project RattleCam livestream.Photo:Project RattleCam/Youtube

Project RattleCam/Youtube

According toCBS News,Project RattleCam’s livestream ofa rattlesnake den in a craggy Colorado hillsidehome to hundreds of rattlesnakes has gotten even busier.

The reptiles are now in the late summer period when they typically give birth. Researchers monitoring the Colorado den’s livestream — available to view onYouTubeorRattleCam.org—have witnessed numerous new, young snakes slithering through shots.

Earlier this year, the California Polytechnic State University Bailey College of Science and Mathematics (Cal Poly) set up a high-tech solar-powered camera system to live stream the northern Colorado rattlesnake “mega-den” from May until October so researchers and animal lovers can observe the rattlesnakes. The exact location of the den is not available to the public to protect the rattlesnakes from curious trespassers.

Now that young snakes are part of the picture, researchers and livestream viewers are seeingnew rattlesnake behaviors.

According to the researcher, adult snakes in the Colorado den offer body heat to the adolescent snakes to help the little snakes regulate their body temperature until it is time to enter hibernation in the fall.

Colorado rattlesnake “mega den,” home to hundreds of snakes.Project RattleCam

Project RattleCam

In a press release about the May launch of the live stream, Cal Poly noted that researchers set up the stream to learn more about rattlesnakes and to “combat the biased imagery we see on television shows of rattling, defensive, and stressed snakes interacting with people who are provoking them.”

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Project Rattlecam, which also has a livestream set up at a snake den in California, is a collaboration between Cal Poly, snake removal company Central Coast Snake Services and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

According to Cal Poly, the best time to tune in to the livestream for snake activity is in the early morning or late at night.

source: people.com