Rattlesnake - Hibernation

Hibernation

Some rattlesnake species hibernate in the colder winter months. They often gather together for hibernation in very large numbers (sometimes over 1,000 snakes), huddling together inside underground "rattlesnake dens" or hibernacula. Rattlesnakes will regularly share their winter burrows with a wide variety of other species (such as turtles, small mammals, invertebrates, and other types of snakes).

Rattlesnakes often return to the same den, year after year, sometimes traveling several miles to get there. It is not known exactly how the rattlesnakes find their way back to the dens each year, but it has been hypothesized that they use a combination of pheromone trails and visual cues (e.g. topography, celestial navigation, and solar orientation).

Species with long periods of hibernation tend to have much lower reproductive rates than those with shorter hibernation periods, or those that don't hibernate at all. Female timber rattlesnakes in high peaks in the Appalachian Mountains of New England reproduce every three years on average; the lance-headed rattlesnake (C. polystictus), native to the warm climate of Mexico, reproduces annually.

Like most other snakes, rattlesnakes aestivate during very hot or dry periods, which is why they are very rarely seen during the hottest and driest months of summer.