The Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake
Your guide to Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes, what to do if you find one, and the work Midwest FOWL is doing to recover the species.
In a hole, in a wetland, there lives a rattlesnake. It actually kind of is a dirty, wet hole, full of invertebrates and the oozy smell of hydric soil, but it's perfect for a little snake snuggled in for the winter: it's a crayfish hole, and that means comfort.
Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes (Sistrurus catenatus) are one of the smallest rattlesnake species in the world, inhabiting grassy wetlands where few people venture and spending winters and cold nights hidden in deep crayfish burrows. Their shy nature, remote habitats, and ability to disappear quickly and quietly mean they're rarely seen when big folk like us come blundering by. While they're known historically from every Great Lakes state, they've been disappearing county by county even in places like Michigan, which has long been considered their heartland. If the trend continues, they'll soon become a creature of myth, forgotten by living memory and known only from books and dusty photographs.
What do I do if I find an Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake?
Despite their rarity, people still do occasionally encounter massasaugas. When that happens, many folks feel compelled to do something. If that's you, here's what to do:
1) Keep a safe distance. For an Eastern Massasauga, that's about three feet, or around the length of an adult's arm.
2) Take a photo. This species is a rare jewel that many spend their entire lives searching for and never seeing. You just saw one. That's incredible.
3) Walk away. Wait, what?! Just leave a venomous snake where it is? Despite folklore and Hollywood media, pit vipers like rattlesnakes are very hesitant to bite, and while painful, their bites are not a death sentence. They also won't chase you. Once you turn away, these shy animals will likely disappear into the grass never to be seen again. If you have dogs or children that you worry will harass it, or it's in a spot where there's a lot of foot traffic, you can encourage the snake to move along with a squirt from a hose, gently moving it with a long-handled garden tool like a rake, or by contacting any number of Free Snake Relocation volunteers who will cheerfully come move it for you.
4) Upload your photo to your state's natural resource database. In Michigan, that's the Michigan Natural Features Inventory or the Michigan Herp Atlas. This observation just helps researchers and agency folks know where and how often massasaugas are still being spotted so they can track trends in their population - it does not affect your property rights whatsoever.
5) Keep it secret, keep it safe. Feel free to share your photo with others, but don't give away specific location information! This keeps the snake and the habitat safe from unwanted visitors like poachers or a crowd of overly enthusiastic folks trying to see the snake for themselves.
Gently lifting an Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake with a pair of specialized snake tongs. These tongs have wide paddles and a safety spring to help prevent accidental injury to the snake. ©Colleen Kellogg
Whatever you do, don't kill it. Killing an Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake is not only a serious violation of state and federal law that can result in steep fines and prison time, but a pointless action motivated by fear and performative toughness that actually puts folks at a higher risk of being bitten. A tiny snake that doesn't want to bite, weighs less than a pound, and runs away at the first opportunity is less of a threat to us and our children than a kitten.
And they really, really don't want to bite. In one study, a Phoenix-based researcher used an artificial leg (warm and wearing human-scented clothing) to step on more than 175 rattlesnakes. Only six tried to bite. An older study with cottonmouths found similar results, finding that less than 20% tried to bite when stepped on and just under half tried to bite when picked up. None of them tried to bite when researchers stood next to them. In our own work, many of us will walk inches in front of the lazy animals without noticing them, and only discover them when the umpteenth researcher walking by finally spots it. The only time they've ever struck is when we pick them up, carefully, with a set of special snake tongs. So if you are absolutely begging to be bit, all you need to do is harass the rattlesnake and try picking it up.
How do I recognize an Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake?
Many snakes rattle their tails when frightened, not just rattlesnakes. Likewise, many snakes have triangular-shaped heads but are not venomous. Here are some clear signs that you're looking at genuine Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake and not one of its many look-alikes. Remember there are exceptions to all of these characteristics, so consider multiple traits.
Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes have dark, saddle-shaped blotches down the center of their backs, although sometimes this pattern can be hard to see on individuals covered with mud or that are darker overall.
Like all rattlesnakes, Eastern Massasaugas have a rattle on their tail. But, these rattles can be very small in young snakes and are fragile - they sometimes break off. Rattlesnakes grow a new button each time they shed their skin, which can be several times a year, so rattles can't be used to determine the age of a snake.
Eastern Massasaugas have a heat-sensing pit between their nostril and eye. Be sure you're not just looking at a nostril - all snakes have those. The pits on rattlesnakes are large and obvious.
Eastern Massasaugas usually remain still. They're nowhere near as active or flighty as other snakes from the region that dart away when spotted.
Eastern Massasaugas are usually found in or near open-canopy wetlands. If you're not near a remote grassy wetland, it's much less likely that you're looking at a massasauga.
Why should I care about Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes?
Massasaugas provide many benefits to humans and are important links in their ecosystems.
Massasaugas are highly adapted rodent control, reducing the damage they cause and the diseases they spread. Rodents are also one of the main vectors for ticks and the diseases they spread. Many of our other snake species like garter snakes consume garden pests like slugs, or fish and amphibians, but far fewer of them actually eat rodents.
Massasaugas are also important seed dispersers. Seeds stored in the cheek pouches of rodents pass through the digestive systems of rattlesnakes unharmed, and sprout more effectively in a pile of rattlesnake feces.
They're also prey themselves. Snakes are sort of nature's spaghetti, and almost everything eats them including hawks, racoons, opossums, turkeys, cranes, herons, ...you name it.
And for humans, anyone who's had a shunt or open-heart surgery owes their lives to the massasauga's very close cousin, the dusky pygmy rattlesnake (Sistrurus milliarius barbouri). Snake venoms are full of different proteins that are harnessed for use in life-saving medications, and new ones are being studied even as you read this. Losing rattlesnakes, even just individuals, means we could be losing life-saving proteins that we can't replicate in a lab.
Most of these are benefits to us, but we believe all living things have a right to exist and have an intrinsic value that would exist even if humans weren't here. Just because an animal has the potential to injure someone does not mean it is a villain or less deserving of life.
What's happening to Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes?
Volunteers surveying in classic Eastern Massasauga habitat. These grassy wetlands are 'open-canopy', meaning they have few if any trees or shrubs, which is perfect for a snake that needs to bask in the sunshine. ©Colleen Kellogg
Massasauga comes from the Ojibwe word meaning "Great River Mouth," and are so named for the habitats these snakes were historically found in - large, open-canopy wetlands often bordering rivers or lakes. In the past two hundred years, Michigan and the U.S. in general have lost about half of the wetland acreage that once covered the landscape due to development and agriculture. Not only does this degrade the quality of our water and make us more susceptible to flooding damage, it takes away the only home for massasaugas and the other 40% of the world's species that live or breed in wetlands. An important point, as conserving massasaugas means we're also conserving the thousands of other species that share these habitats.
Aside from losing habitat directly, wetland loss means the remaining habitats for these snakes are smaller and more fragmented. Smaller habitats are more sensitive to disturbance, including drying out or becoming invaded by woody vegetation. Small habitats make it easier for predators and poachers to wipe out an entire population if they find it. And they're very sensitive to being overvisited - hikers and herpers hoping to capture a photo of one of these snakes can easily trample the vegetation until the habitat resembles a mud pit.
The world is a scary place for a tiny snake. ©Colleen Kellogg
Their habitats are also islands in a sea of human activity. A small population of massasaugas might live in a wetland just a couple acres in size, and be isolated from other populations by miles of roads and vehicle traffic, agricultural fields monitored by hawks and the relentless heat of the sun, and suburbs of homeowners ready with shovels and shotguns. That sort of isolation causes inbreeding, increasing their susceptibility to disease, and can eventually result in their extinction.
What is Midwest Friends of Wildlife doing to recover Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes?
We have two main projects going on right now:
The first is a simple monitoring program that our team has led for years alongside our partners at the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC). We visit places where Eastern Massasaugas Rattlesnakes were historically found but where they haven't been seen in a while, and we attempt to determine if they still exist there. We also do this at properties where rattlesnakes have never been found but the habitat seems right. Knowing they're there helps land managers pick which properties to purchase and preserve, helps them avoid harming a population by accident, and also prioritizes these habitats for more protections and rattlesnake-specific management like clearing woody vegetation, installing artificial burrows called hibernacula, and reseeding native grassy vegetation.
Since visiting these habitats too much can damage them, one of our most important tools for this work is the Adapted Hunt Drift Fence Technique, or AHDriFT. We simply install a short fence in the habitat that forces snakes and other small animals to crawl along it, where they then are guided underneath a camera that takes their picture. These setups can be left in the wetland for several years, capturing thousands of photos of every small creature that walks through. It's a great way to create an inventory of all species in a habitat without needing to spend much time there.
(Top) Midwest FOWL co-directors Karla Kelly, left, and Adam Austin, right, installing an AHDriFT array alonside students during a venomous handling course.
(Bottom) An Eastern Massasauga captured while passing through an AHDriFT array.
The second project is a passive genetic recovery project alongside our partners at West Virginia University (WVU), Lincoln Park Zoo, Michigan State University (MSU), Edward Lowe Foundation, and SWMLC. Even in one of the world's largest and longest-studied Eastern Massasauga populations there's evidence of inbreeding. While other incredible researchers elsewhere are working on headstarting and actively trying to rescue old populations by introducing new rattlesnakes, we're investigating whether simply restoring a connection between two different populations can accomplish something similar by allowing the two populations to more easily interbreed.
For years, the Midwest FOWL team has been leading survey efforts throughout the property, collecting genetic samples and microchipping rattlesnakes from one of these populations. While we use the AHDriFT arrays to help locate them, collecting DNA means actually capturing the animals. This means thousands of hours of trudging through deep muck and dense vegetation, carrying safety tools and a mobile lab that allows us to collect our data and release the snakes unharmed only minutes after initially capturing them. Once enough samples have been collected, they'll be sent off to MSU for sequencing and the results analyzed at WVU. We need to know how isolated these two populations really are already, whether they were one population that split apart decades ago, or whether one population is simply the other one moving into a new area.
While WVU figures out the answers to those questions, we'll be working alongside our partners to develop and implement a plan for a wildlife corridor - a specially designed pathway for rattlesnakes and other wildlife to safely move across a human-dominated landscape. Several years after the corridor is installed, both populations of rattlesnakes will need to be reanalyzed to see whether the change has increased the rate of interbreeding between them.
Adam Austin and Dr. Eric Hileman tube and collect a small blood sample for genetic analysis from an Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake while it's safely restrained in a clear plastic tube. ©Colleen Kellogg
How can I help Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes?
The best way to help our work is by coming to one of our venomous handling trainings, which are open to everyone! The revenue not only funds our work, but the training itself is a great opportunity to make other conservation-oriented friends, learn professional safety skills from an internationally recognized program, and interact with live venomous ambassador animals.
If you can't attend a training, we always welcome volunteers that can help with our outreach, surveys, and habitat improvement efforts. Direct donations are also welcome and are fully tax-deductible.
Joy Penny, left, and Laurel Ridgway, right, safely tube an adult timber rattlesnake during a Midwest FOWL venomous handling course. ©Colleen Kellogg
If you own land yourself, you can help by preserving any open wetland spaces on it, keeping woody shrubs and trees from establishing in the wetland, and avoiding driving vehicles or heavy equipment in the area. If you must mow, mow high, sparingly, and only on designated trails.
Finally, your votes and advocacy count. Wetlands and threatened/endangered species are rapidly losing protections right now. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, we can't tell you who to vote for, but we are absolutely begging folks to do a little research on their candidates and political parties and vote for the one that is in favor of preserving and increasing protections for non-game wildlife.
Sensitive species like Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes only exist in the some of the most high-quality, valuable habitats we have left. Protecting them means protecting an irreplaceable home that is shared by thousands of other important species.
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All work is conducted under a Michigan Scientific Collector's permit, Michigan Threatened/Endangered Species Permit, and a USFWS Threatened Species Recovery permit. Never attempt to handle or harass protected wildlife without proper permits unless moving them out of immediate harm's way.
Photos are contributed and copyright by our friend Colleen Kellogg, who is producing a documentary on the recovery efforts for Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes. You can stay updated on her documentary project here.
You can view our conservation work in action in this video by our friends at Snake Discovery.