{"id":2042042,"date":"2026-07-13T13:50:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T10:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2042042"},"modified":"2026-07-13T13:50:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T10:50:50","slug":"that-thing-youve-heard-about-baby-rattlesnakes-its-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2042042","title":{"rendered":"That Thing You\u2019ve Heard About Baby Rattlesnakes? It\u2019s Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/very-small-rattlesnake-ink-pen-1200×675.jpeg”]<\/p>\n

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So-called experts have alleged for nearly a century (and maybe longer) that baby rattlesnakes are more venomous and more dangerous than the species\u2019 full-grown adults. The first known instance of this factoid was attributed to no less an authority than the owner of Florida\u2019s Reptile Leather company, Roy Montgomery, who claimed to the Miami Tribune in 1936 that venom from a \u201cbaby rattler\u201d was \u201cthinner and far more potent.\u201d As if. Not a chance.<\/p>\n

Unfounded allegations against these young rattlers have been remarkably persistent, according to William Hayes, a biology professor at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine in California. Hayes\u2014whose new study in the journal Toxins tracked these claims\u2014found that roughly half of college-aged students in the American West had heard variations of this deceptive myth. Specifically, about 48.2% of college students surveyed in the Northwest and about 52.6% in the Southwest had heard versions of the assertion that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous because they \u201chave not learned to control the amount of venom they inject when biting and therefore inject more.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, per Hayes\u2019s ongoing research, the volume of rattlesnake venom deployed in an attack increases \u201cexponentially\u201d as these snakes mature and the length of their bodies grow. Baby rattlesnakes, by contrast, deliver less venom in their bites, whether during predatory or defensive strikes. And, contrary to wilderness lore, these juveniles can also control the volume of venom delivered in their attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to get the word out so that we can get this myth corrected,\u201d Hayes explained in a press statement. \u201cThere\u2019s no need for hikers to have unwarranted fear of baby rattlesnakes or to think they need to harm or kill the snakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venomous misinformation<\/h2>\n

Hayes and a student at Loma Linda, M. Cale Morris, scanned newspaper archives for instances of these inaccurate, fear-mongering assertions about baby rattlesnakes, focusing on articles published between 1900 and 2025. Despite old Roy Montgomery\u2019s 1936 interview, they found that this false information did not really achieve viral status until the late 1960s.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, some of these sources do look credible on paper, including a naturalist with Arcadia Wilderness Park in Los Angeles and a local police chief. By the 1990s, the pair\u2019s review of Newspapers.com archives and other sources found that state park rangers, a clinical pharmacist with a poison control center, and even the director of pediatric intensive care at the UC Davis Medical Center were repeating this fake news to reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond the newspaper stories, numerous organizations generally regarded as authoritative further amplified the information,\u201d Hayes and Morris wrote in their study. \u201cExamples we found included popular television broadcast corporations; the Wikipedia article on Rattlesnakes; articles published on county, university, parenting, veterinary, companion animal, and wildlife removal websites; and a popular desert travel guide.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Wikipedia article was corrected around 2010, they noted, much of this false information remains online to this day.<\/p>\n

The high stakes of snake mistakes<\/h2>\n

Hayes said the empirical evidence contradicting these pervasive scare stories ought to be able to make an impact on public perception. \u201cThis is an easily defanged myth that has generated dread, panic, and real-life consequences,\u201d according to Hayes, whose work has focused on venomous snakes and biodiversity issues.<\/p>\n

Both he and Morris hope getting the word out might protect domestic rattlesnake species, like the eastern massasaugas (Sistrurus catenatus<\/em>) and the New Mexico ridge-nosed rattlesnake (Crotalus willardi obscurus<\/em>). Both are listed as \u201cthreatened\u201d under the Endangered Species Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cRattlesnakes occupy an important role in the ecosystems they dwell in and in recent years their populations have dropped significantly in many parts of the United States,\u201d as they put it in their study. \u201cWe also don\u2019t want physicians or veterinarians to succumb to pressure from patients and families who insist on excessive medication after a bite from a baby rattlesnake,\u201d Hayes noted.<\/p>\n

So, to put this in a slightly more viral and hopefully mimetic way: Nobody puts baby rattlesnakes in a corner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n

So-called experts have alleged for nearly a century (and maybe longer) that baby rattlesnakes are more venomous and more dangerous than the species\u2019 full-grown adults. The first known instance of this factoid was attributed to no less an authority than the owner of Florida\u2019s Reptile Leather company, Roy Montgomery, who claimed to the Miami Tribune in 1936 that venom from a \u201cbaby rattler\u201d was \u201cthinner and far more potent.\u201d As if. Not a chance.<\/p>\n

Unfounded allegations against these young rattlers have been remarkably persistent, according to William Hayes, a biology professor at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine in California. Hayes\u2014whose new study in the journal Toxins tracked these claims\u2014found that roughly half of college-aged students in the American West had heard variations of this deceptive myth. Specifically, about 48.2% of college students surveyed in the Northwest and about 52.6% in the Southwest had heard versions of the assertion that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous because they \u201chave not learned to control the amount of venom they inject when biting and therefore inject more.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, per Hayes\u2019s ongoing research, the volume of rattlesnake venom deployed in an attack increases \u201cexponentially\u201d as these snakes mature and the length of their bodies grow. Baby rattlesnakes, by contrast, deliver less venom in their bites, whether during predatory or defensive strikes. And, contrary to wilderness lore, these juveniles can also control the volume of venom delivered in their attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to get the word out so that we can get this myth corrected,\u201d Hayes explained in a press statement. \u201cThere\u2019s no need for hikers to have unwarranted fear of baby rattlesnakes or to think they need to harm or kill the snakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venomous misinformation<\/h2>\n

Hayes and a student at Loma Linda, M. Cale Morris, scanned newspaper archives for instances of these inaccurate, fear-mongering assertions about baby rattlesnakes, focusing on articles published between 1900 and 2025. Despite old Roy Montgomery\u2019s 1936 interview, they found that this false information did not really achieve viral status until the late 1960s.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, some of these sources do look credible on paper, including a naturalist with Arcadia Wilderness Park in Los Angeles and a local police chief. By the 1990s, the pair\u2019s review of Newspapers.com archives and other sources found that state park rangers, a clinical pharmacist with a poison control center, and even the director of pediatric intensive care at the UC Davis Medical Center were repeating this fake news to reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond the newspaper stories, numerous organizations generally regarded as authoritative further amplified the information,\u201d Hayes and Morris wrote in their study. \u201cExamples we found included popular television broadcast corporations; the Wikipedia article on Rattlesnakes; articles published on county, university, parenting, veterinary, companion animal, and wildlife removal websites; and a popular desert travel guide.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Wikipedia article was corrected around 2010, they noted, much of this false information remains online to this day.<\/p>\n

The high stakes of snake mistakes<\/h2>\n

Hayes said the empirical evidence contradicting these pervasive scare stories ought to be able to make an impact on public perception. \u201cThis is an easily defanged myth that has generated dread, panic, and real-life consequences,\u201d according to Hayes, whose work has focused on venomous snakes and biodiversity issues.<\/p>\n

Both he and Morris hope getting the word out might protect domestic rattlesnake species, like the eastern massasaugas (Sistrurus catenatus<\/em>) and the New Mexico ridge-nosed rattlesnake (Crotalus willardi obscurus<\/em>). Both are listed as \u201cthreatened\u201d under the Endangered Species Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cRattlesnakes occupy an important role in the ecosystems they dwell in and in recent years their populations have dropped significantly in many parts of the United States,\u201d as they put it in their study. \u201cWe also don\u2019t want physicians or veterinarians to succumb to pressure from patients and families who insist on excessive medication after a bite from a baby rattlesnake,\u201d Hayes noted.<\/p>\n

So, to put this in a slightly more viral and hopefully mimetic way: Nobody puts baby rattlesnakes in a corner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/very-small-rattlesnake-ink-pen-1200×675.jpeg”] So-called experts have alleged for nearly a century (and maybe longer) that baby rattlesnakes are more venomous and more dangerous than the species\u2019 full-grown adults. The first known instance of this factoid was attributed to no less an authority than the owner of Florida\u2019s Reptile Leather company, Roy Montgomery, who claimed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-2042042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2042042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2042042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2042042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2042042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}