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TIMBER
RATTLESNAKE
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(Crotalus horridus)
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Timber Rattlesnakes previously inhabited most of North Carolina. European settlers apparently extirpated many populations and with development over the last century, most populations in the Peidmont of North Carolina have disappeared. For many years, people wondered if Timber rattlesnakes had disappeared from Mecklenburg County and the surrounding regions. During the summer of 2001, we obtained a specimen collected in 1997 on the Ramah Creek Conservation Easement. This specimen represents the first record of a Timber Rattlesnake in Mecklenburg County. An additional specimen was killed the same year, but the carcass was discarded. We also obtained photographs of two more specimens that were killed in northwestern Cabarrus County during the early Fall of 2000. Are there other populations of Timber rattlesnakes in the Western Piedmont of North Carolina? More studies need to be done...
*Stroupe, D. A. and M. E. Dorcas. 2001. The apparent persistence
of Crotalus horridus in the western Piedmont of North Carolina. Herpetological
Review 32:287-288. (reprint)