Fangs. Rattles. Misconceptions. Crawl out from under your rock for the angelic rattle of one of the world’s most maligned, misunderstood, gorgeous, mysterious, efficient creatures. Herpetology professor, rattlesnake scientist and thus, Crotalologist Dr. Emily Taylor discusses why rattlesnakes deserve our love, the parenthood strategies of rattlers, how to avoid getting bitten, dog rattlesnake training, rattlers’ relationships with squirrels, antivenom, vaccines, mattress trivia, mood snakes and who gets bitten the most. Hint: it’s not hikers. 

July 13-19, 2025 celebrate the Inaugural Snake Week and check out ProjectRattleCam

Visit Dr. Taylor’s website and follow her on Bluesky and Instagram

Buy Dr. Taylor’s book, California Snakes and How to Find Them, on Bookshop.org or Amazon

Her latest book, California Lizards and How to Find Them, is also available on Bookshop.org and Amazon

A donation went to The Rattlesnake Conservancy

Emily’s Rattlesnake Perception Survey: take the pre-survey, listen to the episode, then complete the post-survey

More episode sources and links

Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Other episodes you may enjoy: Herpetology (REPTILES), Saurology (LIZARDS), Fearology (FEAR), Sciuridology (SQUIRRELS), Acaropathology (TICKS & LYME DISEASE), Forest Entomology (CREEPY CRAWLIES)

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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth

Transcripts by Aveline Malek 

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn