Animal Report by Patrick Appleby

1. Animal Reportby Patrick Appleby

2. Introduction • Did you know that rattlesnakes actually smell with their nostrils and tongue? A rattlesnake is one of the most incredible snakes in the world. Also, a rattlesnake was put on a flag during the Revolutionary War to warn the soldiers the British were on their way to them. Once a rattlesnake’s mouth is open the fangs are visible, when the rattlesnake closes his mouth the fangs fold up in his mouth. If you want more interesting facts about rattlesnakes, keep reading.

3. Body Parts Here are some more facts about rattlesnakes, only these are about their body. Rattlesnakes come in many different colors. Also, they have scaly skin and pitch black eyes. They even have the same organs as humans! Rattlesnakes have very big fangs, they can almost go through anything! Rattlesnakes have many body parts like their rattle and fangs. Even tiny scales on their head. In every fang there is a lot of poisonous venom. There are 2 kinds of rattlesnakes, Crotalus and Pygmy. A Crotalus’ rattle is 3 in. Its body is 8 ft. A Crotalus rattlesnake’s body weighs 20 lb. their rattle is 3 lb. A Pygmy’s rattle is 2 in. and 2 lb. Its body is 15 lb. and 2 ft. long. There's more where that came from about rattlesnakes.

4. Life Cycle • A rattlesnake goes through an incomplete metamorphosis. An incomplete metamorphosis is when a baby starts out one way and just keeps growing. A rattlesnake starts out as an egg. The egg waits about 2 weeks and then it goes into the hatching stage. In the hatching stage the snake isn’t out yet. After a while the snake is out of its egg and a juvenile snake. After it grows a couple ft. longer, it is officially an adult rattlesnake. Then it’s mating time. Those are the stages of the rattlesnake, but there’s more. Snakes can have 6 to 20 babies, born with a prebutton. Rattlesnakes always have a den for their family and stay together. That is everything I know about Rattlesnake life cycles.

5. Food and Nutrition • Are you ready for some facts about a rattlesnake’s food and nutrition? We’ll start with what rattlesnakes eat. Usually rattlesnakes eat rodents such as rats and mice. Barely at all rattlesnakes eat toads, lizards, and earthworms. Rattlesnakes sometimes eat birds, but when that happens when the bird flies away the rattlesnake holds on. When it comes to how they get their food, squirting venom comes into mind. There is also biting and using the element of surprise. Snakes always have the element of surprising the target animal. Males like to eat more than female snakes do. Males eat 15 to 20 times a day and females 10 to 15. Those are all the facts I know about food.

6. Habitat • You probably don’t know about a rattlesnake’s habitat, I’ll start with where rattlesnakes live. Rattlesnakes are usually found in southwestern areas like South America. Rattlesnakes like the western diamondback like about 87° in the desert, and 79° in the rainforest. To get away from predators in the desert they use camouflage to blend in with the sand. Rattlesnakes go in their burrows to get away from the rainforest. That is a rattlesnakes location and temperature.

7. Enemies and Survival Functions • Did you know that Rattlesnakes have over 20 adaptations? I’ll give you a few of them, first there’s venom, a snake uses venom to eat its prey. A rattlesnakes rattle of course and a rattlesnakes fangs are all adaptations. Rattlesnakes have very few enemies, just humans, big eagles, and hawks. There is also falcons and other snakes that eat rattlesnakes. To survive as a rattlesnake they must eat their prey every day. Like many other animals, rattlesnakes have to hibernate through the winter inside their burrow. You may have only thought mammals hibernated, but your wrong, all snakes hibernate every year. These are all the things that make a rattlesnakes enemies and survival unique.

8. Interesting Facts • We are almost done with the report, we will top it off with some fun facts. There are actually 30 different types of rattlesnakes. A rattlesnake’s rattle includes 15 different bones. Here is another rattle fact. A rattlesnakes rattle only buzzes when there is danger near. Like other snakes rattlesnakes are flexible and they shed their skin every year. There is three layers of skin on a rattlesnake. The first is very rough, the middle is scaly, and the last layer shows the rattlesnakes true color. One more paragraph left until my report is done.

9. Closing Paragraph • Did you know that rattlesnakes belong to the pit viper family? Actually the rattlesnakes most important body part is its fangs because if it didn’t have fangs it wouldn’t be able to eat things. Also, the rattlesnake goes through an incomplete metamorphosis because it just keeps growing and nothing changes at all. Rattlesnakes love rodents but also eat everything from lizards to frogs! Rattlesnakes have to stay in their burrows to dodge the bad weather. Rattlesnakes hibernate for two reasons. 1. Predators can’t get rattlesnakes while hibernating. 2. To stay warm in the winter. The rattlesnakes three layers of skin are the rough one which is the first, the second is scaly, and the last shows the true color. I hope you liked my animal report.

10. Animal Web-Sites http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/index.htm www.google.com http://school.eb.com/elementary www.enature.com www.sandiegozoo.com www.allaboutmammals.com http://kids.yahoo.com/ www.enchantedlearning.com www.kidsplanet.org