Western Diamondback Rattlesnake wakes up suddenly! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2024-10-22 | Western Diamondback Rattlesnake wakes up suddenly!
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-29 | 🐍 Rattlesnakes tail-vibrate faster than other snakes, with some individuals nearing or exceeding 90 rattles per second. This makes rattlesnake tail vibration one of the fastest sustained vertebrate movements—faster than the wingbeat of a hummingbird!
Photographing an Antelope Jackrabbit! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-27 | 🐰 Jackrabbits’ extremely large ears, about a third of their body length, are usually thought to help them hear but these long appendages also help regulate their body temperature. The ears are rich with blood vessels and in summer heat, these blood vessels expand. Spread ears and summer breezes cool the blood. During winter, these ears are held against the body and their blood vessels constrict so they lose less heat to the cold air. #antelopejackrabbit
Bobcat Family! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-26 | 🐱🐈🐈🐈 The mating system of bobcats is similar to that of domestic cats. Males and females are only together for the brief time required for courtship and mating, and both males and females may have more than one mate.Bobcats usually mate in the early spring, although the timing is variable. After a gestation of 60 to 70 days, a litter of one to six, but usually two to four, kittens are born. The young open their eyes for the first time when they are 10 days old, and they nurse through their second month. Young bobcats strike out on their own during the winter, when they are about 8 months old. #bobcats
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-25 | The main difference between hibernation and brumation is that when a mammal nears its time to hibernate, it eats more to gain enough fat to sustain it through its winter’s sleep. Snakes nearing brumation eat less because they do not want food in their system during brumation. During a snake’s brumation period, they are lethargic but not totally asleep. They will rouse to find the water they need to survive and will sometimes even be found sitting on a warm rock in the sun on a warmish day in January!
Wet Great Horned Owlet! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-24 | When weather is bad the owls have great difficulty finding food, their soft feathers are not very waterproof and so they cannot hunt well in rain. Owls don't like rain because they have such a thick plumage and normally they avoid flying in heavy downpours.
Bobcat dinner time! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-22 | Desert-dwelling bobcats will eat practically anything that moves because deserts aren’t abundant with food sources. This means they will feed on rock squirrels, snakes and other reptiles, mice, lizards, rabbits, and raccoons.It is worth noting that bobcats’ feeding habits also depend on the seasons. In the spring and summer, they have more available food sources. During these months, they prefer eating squirrels and rabbits.
Barn Owlets! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-19 | Good morning! 🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉Barn Owls build nests in hollow trees, cliff cavities, in buildings, and nest boxes. They do not build a true nest, but much of the debris around the nest is formed into a depression. The female lays 2-11 eggs (usually about 5), and incubates them for 29-34 days. The young start to fly at about 60 days. They return to the nest site at night for a few weeks after their first flight. #barnowls
Rattlesnake adjusting its jaw! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-17 | 🐍Snakes don’t have a chin that connects to their upper jaw and skull. All they have are stretchy ligaments that hold their lower mandible in place. This means that they have to stretch their ligaments to be able to swallow prey that can be even bigger than their head.To us, though, that looks like yawning. So if you notice your snake yawning before they eat, it’s nothing to do with them feeling sleepy before their supper. It’s to do with them preparing their jaw to eat their prey in one go. #westerndiamonbackrattlesnake
Rattlesnake Combat Dance! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-11 | If two male rattlesnakes meet while tracking a female rattlesnake, they may begin this combat. The males will raise their heads up together and begin to wrestle. They’ll twist together and try to knock each other against the ground. They might fight for seconds or many minutes, but the winner of the battle will stay and mate with the female rattlesnake. The losing opponent will generally flee.
Great Horned Owlet! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-08-07 | 🦉 When owlets leave the nest they can't fly. You might find them walking on the ground or climbing trees. It takes about 3 weeks for them to master flying. Both parents take part in teaching their babies how to fly. They do this by flying and hovering around the nest so that the babies see how easy it is. I have witnessed this in person.
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake Vs Great Horned Owl! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-07-09 | ...
Great Horned Owlet! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-07-06 | 🦉 When owlets leave the nest they can't fly. You might find them walking on the ground or climbing trees. It takes about 3 weeks for them to master flying. Both parents take part in teaching their babies how to fly. They do this by flying and hovering around the nest so that the babies see how easy it is. I have witnessed this in person. #greathornedowl
Regal Horned Lizard dinner time! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-07-05 | 🦎The regal horned lizard is a small, flat lizard about the size of the palm of a man's hand. Though it has spikes all around its body, the regal horn's main defense is the ability to squirt blood from its eyes. They eat mostly harvester ants, and can eat twenty-five hundred ants in one meal. They are slow eaters, because they spend most of their time in the intense heat of the desert during meals. They eat flies, spiders, and a variety of insects. #hornedlizard
Helping a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake cross the road! PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-06-28 | ...
Bathroom time! 🐍💩 PachucosArt/The Desert Whisperer 2023-06-20 | 🐍💩Once the meal is reduced to poop, the snake can get rid of it through an anal opening, or cloaca, which is Latin for ‘sewer.’ This opening can be found at the end of a snake’s belly and beginning of its tail; unsurprisingly, the feces are the same width as the snake’s body. A snake will use the same opening to defecate, urinate, mate, and lay eggs—now that’s multi-purpose! #westerndiamonbackrattlesnake
