# Timber Rattlesnake



## Ridge Walker (Oct 25, 2019)

I went out looking for Timbers yesterday and saw a few. This one was nice enough to not move while I took some photos. Sorry for the annoying IMGUR link.



https://imgur.com/9HlNing


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## Nicodemus (Oct 25, 2019)

Ya`lls are colored up a little different from ours down here. I don`t see the brown stripe down the back on that one. 

We also don`t have a black phase like the two in your avatar picture.


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## Ridge Walker (Oct 25, 2019)

Around here it depends on the snake, some have a visible line some don't. You definitely don't see it as defined as you do on a canebrake though.


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## Nicodemus (Oct 25, 2019)

How long do they get up there? About 5 and 1/2 feet is as big as I`ve ever caught for a canebrake.


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## Ridge Walker (Oct 25, 2019)

Males might get to 54", and that would be a huge one.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 25, 2019)

Nice! Never saw one colored exactly like that here in the Smokies either. Ours don't usually have the back stripe either. They are almost all either yellow phase with a black tail or black phase here. Two I ran across less than a mile from each other one morning last year:





As for size here, about 4' would probably be average. I've seen a couple of five footers. My grandma killed one that was over 6' back many years ago (with a hoe,) but that one was just unusually huge. The yellow phase one in the pic above is 5' or very close to it.


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## oops1 (Oct 25, 2019)

You’re not right goin and looking for em like that.All due respect. I was under the impression that canebrake and timber were the same snake. Please advise?


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## Nicodemus (Oct 25, 2019)

Here`s our local colors here in Southwest Georgia. All 3 of these were 5 footers. The second one was in the front yard.


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## kmckinnie (Oct 25, 2019)




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## kmckinnie (Oct 25, 2019)

They are tring to feed up around here.


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## Nicodemus (Oct 25, 2019)

They`re a lot easier to handle than a diamondback.


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## 4HAND (Oct 25, 2019)

Lord have mercy.


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## Ridge Walker (Oct 25, 2019)

oops1 said:


> You’re not right goin and looking for em like that.All due respect. I was under the impression that canebrake and timber were the same snake. Please advise?



Canebrakes are just the southern variety. They are still Timber Rattlesnakes, just look a little different.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 26, 2019)

oops1 said:


> You’re not right goin and looking for em like that.All due respect. I was under the impression that canebrake and timber were the same snake. Please advise?


Loosely the same snake, but with differences. They have often been treated as separate subspecies, sometimes just as different races. All canebrakes are timber rattlers, but all timber rattlers aren't canebrakes. 

As RW said, the canebrake is the southeastern flatland variety of the timber rattler. They have different coloration than the classic timber rattler, and sometimes differences in the chemical composition of their venom.


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## oops1 (Oct 26, 2019)

Thanks for educating me


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## Ridge Walker (Oct 26, 2019)

NCHillbilly said:


> Loosely the same snake, but with differences. They have often been treated as separate subspecies, sometimes just as different races. All canebrakes are timber rattlers, but all timber rattlers aren't canebrakes.
> 
> As RW said, the canebrake is the southeastern flatland variety of the timber rattler. They have different coloration than the classic timber rattler, and sometimes differences in the chemical composition of their venom.



Yep, and I should have pointed out that Canebrakes are the southern coastal plain race of the Timber Rattlesnake. Southern montane Timbers, like the ones you would find in the Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains, are not canebrakes.


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## Jim Boyd (Oct 26, 2019)

SC version...

This one was about 60” long and very gentlemanly. 

Allowed a great many pics and videos and never once displayed any attitude. 

.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 26, 2019)

Jim Boyd said:


> SC version...
> 
> This one was about 60” long and very gentlemanly.
> 
> ...


I have never encountered an aggressive timber rattler. Most won't even coil and rattle unless you really mess with them. That black one in my pic above is about the testy-est one I've encountered over the years, but he was about to shed and his eyes were clouded over. He would have bitten me if I had given him the opportunity. The yellow one above, I had to pick up with a stick and move out of the trail, and he still didn't get ill. Just crawled away.


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## Buckman18 (Oct 26, 2019)

The one in my avatar was very aggressive. The second we saw each other he coiled up and started buzzing. But, he had just ate a rabbit. My daughter was with me and this was her first such encounter.


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## Nicodemus (Oct 26, 2019)

I`ve only run up on one canebrake that had  a bad temper. Opening day of deer season 2015 and it was around 45 degrees. I didn`t see the snake till I was just about to step on it. Only canebrake I`ve ever seen that went into a coil and picked its head way up off the ground like a diamondback will do rather than stay low. That snake got mad in a hurry, for no reason. I really believe I woke it up out of a deep sleep. It should have never acted that way especially in those temps.


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## Jim Boyd (Oct 26, 2019)

I moved the one in my pic with a stick and it never said a word...

First he crawled a little way up a tree and then just crawled back into his lair, which was a large fallen log. 

Came back the next day and he was still there.


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## Nicodemus (Oct 26, 2019)

Jim Boyd said:


> I moved the one in my pic with a stick and it never said a word...
> 
> First he crawled a little way up a tree and then just crawled back into his lair, which was a large fallen log.
> 
> Came back the next day and he was still there.




Males only have about 1/2 mile home range. Females about 1/4 mile. If you relocate one any further than that from where you found it, chances are good that it won`t survive.


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