Rattlesnakes in a Hail Storm? Watch It Go Down on a Trail Cam

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You might not think rattlesnakes get caught up in hail storms very often, and that’s probably true. But when a summer hail storm rolled through northern Colorado, some prairie rattlesnakes showed trail cam viewers how much they both hate and love this weird weather phenomenon.

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In the video, captured by Project RattleCam, you can see the wind start to pick up and some hail start to fall as the rattlesnakes head for cover. As the hail picks up and starts to come down more forcefully, the camera changes position to show more rattlesnakes wedging themselves into rock crevices to wait out the storm.

But then, the hail stops even more suddenly than it starts, and what do the rattlesnakes do? They immediately start lapping up the melting water from the hail.

Watch rattlesnakes in a hail storm here:

Is that what you expected to happen? It makes sense that the rattlesnakes would want to take advantage of the unexpected water source.

Prairie rattlesnakes are masters at adapting to various environments. According to the National Park Service (NPS), the prairie rattlesnake has the largest range of any rattlesnake species in the country. “Their range extends through the Great Plains, stretching from Canada to Mexico,” NPS says on its website. “Although these snakes enjoy open grasslands and prairies, they may also seek out forested environments.”

Project RattleCam keeps a trail cam in this undisclosed Colorado location to keep track of a large den of prairie rattlesnakes. Thanks to this trail cam, the public got to catch a glimpse of this not-so-common scenario: a summer hail storm rolling through a rattlesnake den.

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