It’s not just garter snakes. Rattlesnakes are among the most reliably social serpents in North America, and the behaviour goes well beyond just huddling for warmth. Researchers studying western diamondback rattlesnakes found that they formed distinct social groups, made up of individuals they frequently interacted with and rarely strayed from, even when other rattlesnakes with overlapping home ranges were nearby. These weren’t random associations. They were consistent, preferential, and maintained across seasons.<\/p>\n
Timber rattlesnakes take it further still, with genetic studies confirming that related individuals preferentially share hibernation sites and basking locations, even after years of separation. So if you come across a rattlesnake sunning itself on a rocky ledge, there’s a real possibility that several more are within close range, known to that snake personally.<\/p>\n
For sheer spectacle, nothing beats what happens every year in Manitoba, Canada. Red-sided garter snakes gather in communal dens that can hold up to 10,000 snakes at a time, the largest overwintering population of snakes in the world, and the largest gathering of any terrestrial vertebrate in North America. They aren’t there by accident. Research suggests snakes return to the same dens year after year, forming a site fidelity that implies they may recognise familiar individuals from one season to the next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s not just garter snakes. Rattlesnakes are among the most reliably social serpents in North America, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":999523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[277274,212107,70,277273,277271,277272,16,15,1717],"class_list":["post-999522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-cottonmouth","tag-garter-snake","tag-science","tag-snakes-near-home","tag-snakes-that-are-always-in-group","tag-snakes-that-are-in-groups","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116678111020250362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}