Fangs. Rattles. Misconceptions. Crawl out from under your rock for the angelic rattle of one of the world’s most maligned, misunderstood, gorgeous, mysterious, efficient creatures. Herpetology professor, rattlesnake scientist and thus, Crotalologist Dr. Emily Taylor discusses why rattlesnakes deserve our love, the parenthood strategies of rattlers, how to avoid getting bitten, dog rattlesnake training, rattlers’ relationships with squirrels, antivenom, vaccines, mattress trivia, mood snakes and who gets bitten the most. Hint: it’s not hikers.
July 13-19, 2025 celebrate the Inaugural Snake Week and check out ProjectRattleCam
Visit Dr. Taylor’s website and follow her on Bluesky and Instagram
Buy Dr. Taylor’s book, California Snakes and How to Find Them, on Bookshop.org or Amazon
Her latest book, California Lizards and How to Find Them, is also available on Bookshop.org and Amazon
A donation went to The Rattlesnake Conservancy
Emily’s Rattlesnake Perception Survey: take the pre-survey, listen to the episode, then complete the post-survey
More episode sources and links
Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes
Other episodes you may enjoy: Herpetology (REPTILES), Saurology (LIZARDS), Fearology (FEAR), Sciuridology (SQUIRRELS), Acaropathology (TICKS & LYME DISEASE), Forest Entomology (CREEPY CRAWLIES)
Transcripts and bleeped episodes
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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee
Managing Director: Susan Hale
Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth
Transcripts by Aveline Malek
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer
Theme song by Nick Thorburn