Itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny rattlesnake!

A while back I was cleaning out a pack rat nest and I saw something shiny.  It was tiny and at first I thought it was a shell like the type pictured below.  People will bring shells home from the beach, leave them out on the patio and the pack rats will take a few for their nests.  After all they are "pack rats"!

I was not surprised since I have seen shells in rats nests many times, but I wasn't a 100% sure because I was standing above it and it was in the dirt and small.  What I saw was more like this:

I bent over to pick the "shell up" and saw it was a very little snake.  My next thought was "oh, its a harmless blind night snake". Not uncommon, but I had never seen one coiled  up before. Usually they are more worm-like.  So I took a  very close look and saw this:

It was an itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny rattlesnake!  How tiny?  Here it is next to by business card:

The amazing thing is that the little guy was just as feisty and aggressive as any other rattlesnake. He would shake his tail just like an adult, but was too little to have a rattle. Here is a picture of him taking a strike at my snake tongs:

Tiny as he was, his bite can be just as deadly as any other rattlesnake.  Some say more deadly, because baby snakes have not learned how to regulate their venom like an adult can.  I have seen many rattlesnakes, including a fair number of young small snakes, but I have never seen out this small before or since.   I carefully moved him a safe distance away and hope he has a long life without further human contact.

The Tiger Rattlesnake

The Tiger rattlesnake takes the prize for the highest toxicity of venom in the western hemisphere and produces a neurotoxin essentially identical to the Mohave rattlesnake along with a myotoxin that causes muscular necrosis.  However, the Tiger rattlesnake is notoriously reclusive and reluctant to strike unless intentionally provoked.  Most people will go their entire lives in southern Arizona and never see one.  As of this date, I have only encountered two in my entire career!

Wikipedia - Tiger Rattlesnake

Do you know the official Arizona State mammal?

Arizona has an official state flower (Saguaro blossom), bird (Cactus Wren) and even a state mammal - the Ringtail - often called a ringtail cat because of its cat like features.

The above photo is a rare site.  Ringtails are common, but also nocturnal and usually very secretive.   Since ringtails are omnivores whose diet includes pack rats, we occasionally trap a ringtail when we are are trapping pack rats.  Since we use live catch traps, the ringtails are unharmed and always released.  The ringtail above was trapped at a pack rat entry point in an attic.  When released, she quickly climbed a tree and posed for a picture.

Ringtails are actually part of the coon family, as you can tell by the tail.  To learn more about ringtails you may want to check out these links:

Desert Museum fact-sheet Ringtail

Wikipedia - Ring-tailed cat

Unlike pest control companies, Mr. Pack Rat has a special use permit from Arizona Game & Fish to be able to legally trap ringtails and other select wildlife.

We may only see 1-2 ringtails a year.  The most interesting situation was ringtail in the library of Catalina Foothills High School.  It sneaked in when the janitors left the back door open while cleaning.  When something got into the librarian's lunch left overnight, the school suspected a pack rat.  Turned out to be a ringtail which was living under an interior book drop. The ringtail was trapped and released just outside the library.  

The most recent ringtail we caught was at Canyon Ranch in an power equipment room with four walls, but no roof.  The room is full of utility equipment where the year before a racoon actually caused a brown-out when it squeezed into hole on the side of a 480 volt breaker box.  The racoon did not survive.  The hole was sealed, but the resort did not want to take a chance when evidence of another critter appeared and they called Mr. Pack Rat.  I determined from the scat, the animal was a ringtail.  It was safely trapped and in this case relocated in a designated wildlife area a few miles away.

What is even rarer than seeing a ringtail is hearing one.  Below is a short clip of a ringtail before release and you can see they not only have cat like features, they also sound somewhat like a cat. They are truly amazing creatures. You can also see they do not like to be in a cage and it always gives me great joy to set them free.

On a road to nowhere

Arizona State Route 373 is a dead end  spur of a highway less than 5 miles long, sometime referred to as the road to nowhere.   It ends at a little village of a town called Greer.  Unlike most places, you can't just pass through Greer while on your way to somewhere else.  You go to Greer - there is only the one paved road in and out.  The entire community nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains peaks in the middle of a national forest.

If you are new to Arizona, you may have heard of some of our wonderful mountain communities like Flagstaff, Pinetop, and Show Low, where the thousands of city dwellers escape to to beat the summer heat.

You may not have heard of Greer.  Less than 200 people live in Greer year round.  There is a country store, a few restaurants and shops.  There are some lodges and cabins to rent. Cell phone coverage is spotty at best.   What does Greer have?

At 8,500 elevation often the coolest summer temperatures in Arizona and in the winter snow, lots of snow.

Teddy Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, western novelists Zane Grey, James Willard Schultz, Stewart Edward White and Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Hollywood Westerns legend John Wayne have all visited Greer.  It is peaceful and beautiful.

Our family has been going to Greer for over twenty years.  My son's learned to fish in the Little Colorado River which bisects the valley.  Stocked with trout, crystal clear and it is really more of a stream than a river.

We have celebrated several Thanksgivings, Christmas and many wonderful family trips to Greer.  Usually staying in a cabin with no phones, no TV and until recently no internet. There is little to do but thoroughly enjoy nature and each other's company.

If life is moving too fast and you need some quiet time, I suggest Greer.

Life in Greer!

And one more thing they have in Greer -----

Pack Rats!

This is a pack rat nest in an old abandoned outhouse.

If you want to learn more about Greer check out these websites:

greerarizona.com/

wmonline.com/cities/greer.htm

If you are a history buff, like I am, try and get a copy of the outstanding, out of print book:

On the Road to Nowhere: A History of Greer, Arizona, 1879-1979

by Karen M. Applewhite

You let me know if you have any questions or would like suggestions of where to stay and what to see.