{"id":36896,"date":"2026-09-19T06:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T10:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=36896"},"modified":"2026-09-17T11:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:03:07","slug":"rattlesnakes-shed-skin-together-wyoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/rattlesnakes-shed-skin-together-wyoming\/36896\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers tracking prairie rattlesnakes in Wyoming kept finding \u201cpiles\u201d of snakes shedding their skin together, a behavior never documented before in this species"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prairie rattlesnakes in Wyoming\u2019s Sinks Canyon State Park have been observed gathering while shedding their skin<\/a>, a behavior researchers believe has not previously been documented in this species. The discovery emerged from a project tracking snakes moved away from places where people encountered them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of 24 small gatherings recorded by the team, 12 contained at least one snake undergoing the shedding process. The observations establish a link, not a reason, and uncovering that reason could help managers decide where to release relocated snakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tracking project takes an unexpected turn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily Martin<\/a>, a doctoral candidate in biology and natural resources at the University of Idaho, had been following relocated prairie rattlesnakes. She and her supervisor, U.S. Geological Survey biologist Courtney Conway, later analyzed the unexpected gatherings in a study published in Ecology and Evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe would find piles of rattlesnakes, and one or two of them would be shedding,\u201d Martin told The Wildlife Society<\/a>. These were small gatherings, generally two snakes, with some groups containing three or four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locating the snakes meant following radio signals through the canyon, sometimes to several animals rather than just the individual carrying a transmitter. Martin recalled her first shedding observation on a cool, sunny morning in August 2024, when the temperature was about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Later, she found four or five discarded skins on the rocks at the same spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the snake gatherings actually showed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The study included observations of 81 snakes from April 2024 through October 2025, including 29 fitted with radio transmitters. Researchers counted animals with cloudy eye coverings or visibly peeling skin as undergoing shedding, so not every snake in that category was actively slipping out of its old skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared with snakes that were not shedding, those in the shedding process had higher odds of being in a group. Yet 19 of the 25 snakes observed shedding were never found in a gathering, so the behavior was far from universal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also not the first time snakes have been seen shedding together. Similar gatherings have been documented in other pit vipers<\/a>, including northern Pacific rattlesnakes, midget faded rattlesnakes, and cottonmouths, making the Wyoming work a new piece of a larger puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why gather during such a vulnerable moment?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shedding, known scientifically as \u201cecdysis<\/a>,\u201d replaces a snake\u2019s old outer skin. During its later stages, a snake\u2019s eye coverings can become cloudy and its activity can decline, potentially leaving it less able to detect or respond to predators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Could company make that vulnerable period safer? Researchers considered whether gathering might help snakes detect threats or reduce each animal\u2019s chances of being attacked, but the study\u2019s evidence for predator avoidance was inconclusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reproduction offers another possibility. Shedding might change the release or detection of pheromones (chemical signals involved in communication), potentially helping snakes locate mates, or the animals might gather for breeding and shed while together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warm companions or the right patch of ground?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Temperature is another candidate, but two different ideas need separating. Snakes might gather because certain spots provide suitable temperatures<\/a>, or their bodies might buffer one another against temperature changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study found some support for the suitable-habitat and reproductive explanations<\/a>, but not for the predictions tested about greater thermal efficiency from grouping. That does not eliminate every possible temperature benefit, especially since the researchers did not directly measure heat loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picture several people choosing the same patch of shade on a hot afternoon. Sharing a location does not necessarily mean they came there to socialize, and distinguishing attraction to a place from attraction to other snakes remains an important question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this matters for snakes and hikers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the biology, Martin sees a practical use for these observations in parks where walking trails cross rattlesnake habitat. Better knowledge of suitable shedding sites could guide release locations, while evidence that companions matter could support investigating releases near resident snakes or releasing animals together. Those are possibilities to test, not established relocation rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For visitors, none of this is a reason to approach a gathering for a closer photograph. The National Park Service<\/a> advises giving rattlesnakes plenty of room and avoiding attempts to handle or catch them<\/a>, while noting that these predators eat rodents and are themselves prey for birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next challenge is to determine what draws the snakes together, rather than assume the gathering itself explains their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study was published in Ecology and Evolution on Wiley Online Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prairie rattlesnakes in Wyoming\u2019s Sinks Canyon State Park have been observed gathering while shedding their skin, a behavior researchers believe has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":36930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36958,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36896\/revisions\/36958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}