A long, rainy winter coupled with plenty of insects and lizards may make for a dangerous summer when it comes to encounters with the Mojave green rattlesnake, according to one local expert.
“I believe the much wetter season along with a colder March is causing the Mojaves to try to make up for lost time,” Joseph Banashek of the Mojave Desert Rattlesnake Research group in Adelanto said, with the snakes hungry and anxious to mate after missing their typical seasonal debut by more than a month.
Banashek found his first Mojave of the season on a dirt road in Adelanto shortly after 9 p.m. April 9. The 28-inch snake was a male, out in the cool night air.
What concerned him, he said, was the female snake he found nearby Wednesday at around 3 p.m., with temperatures nearing 75 degrees. The 32-inch snake was coiled up and lifted a foot off the ground, not moving when his truck came within three feet.
With more than 20 years studying the local Mojave population, Banashek said he’s probably only found four or five out in the open midday.
“Both snakes have been very defensive, biting and standing their ground — to me much more than normal,” he said.
When he finds a Mojave, Banashek takes a GPS lock on its location. He weighs, measures and photographs the snakes, and puts a small marking with liquid paper on their base rattle. He then re-releases them where he found them unless it was in a populated area, reporting his findings to a nearby university and to the state.
Banashek said he doesn’t believe there were any reported Mojave bites last year, but fears that could change this season.