Cannibalistic Carrion Ingestion by the Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis

Abstract

position evidently exaggerates the olfactory stimulus that is important during feeding (Cowles and Phelan, 1958; Dullemeijer, 1961), and carrion consumption by rattlesnakes may be more prevalent than formerly assumed. I report the ingestion of a putrid juvenile Pacific rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis helleri, by a conspecific juvenile of similar size in the laboratory. The incident occurred within a 100 X 50 cm cage containing 12 small C. viridis helleri ranging from roughly 20 to 30 cm in length. Most of the snakes were yearlings. The snakes were fed routinely on newborn mice, but at the time of the incident they had not been fed for approximately two weeks. On 21 March 1981 I approached the cage just as one of the snakes was beginning to ingest another dead one. The dead snake was partially dehydrated, putrid, and was bent sharply back on itself with the adjacent parts compressed and partially twisted together. The carcass was rigid and covered with dried mucus. The condition of the carcass indicated that it had been ingested previously and regurgitated, and that it had dehydrated for some time prior to the second ingestion which I witnessed. I left the room when the sec-