There is a video going around about a clueless Darwin Award candidate who brings a Go Pro to a rattler den and basically harrasses and freaks out a bunch of rattlers, who strike the camera lens over and over (the Go Pro falls into the snake den, too, further freaking out the snakes and causing them to strike).
The most horrific part is not the rattling, etc., but the sound of the frightened snakes getting badly hurt by striking very forcefully onto a rigid, unyielding camera lens or Go Pro housing, which is cruel and frankly abusive, allowing them to strike a hard surface like that...it's really sad because those snakes, if they bruise their mouths, can easily get an infection, will no longer be able to hunt or eat and will starve to death. Plus, their venom is mostly to help them catch food, not get spent on some idiot's camera.
Reptiles are actually vital in the food chain, to raptors, water birds, and many other animals, and rattlers naturally keep pests down...that is their job on this planet.
It was a very cruel and thoughtless video. Much as snakes give me the creeps, those snakes were just denning up and bothering no one, and some moron came up to bug them. What I worry most about are other idiots with GoPros who decide to do the same thing and also win a Darwin Award by hassling snakes who would really just like people to leave them alone.
Readers, please think twice about reposting that video; you probably know what it is, as it is all over the Internet. As much as rattlesnakes freak a lot of people out, including me, they do not need to have someone hurt them like that.
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