Does the 'Wood Rattler' habitat include Houston, Texas?

Question

Are babies found this time of year - March?
Light brown in color - 10-12" in length
Coiled back as if to strike - unprovoked
Ran into bushes and unable to locate/kill
Wooded, densly populated area 10 minutes from Downtown Houston

Answer 1

You have a LOT of snakes in Texas, including the Timber Rattlesnake (not 'wood rattler'.)

However, you also have at least a dozen species that look like your snake that are not only harmless, but environmentally helpful.

These include the Texas Brown Snake (a small species about the size you mention), Bullsnakes, and more.

For more about your local snakes, try http://www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps/snakes/



Now...

"unprovoked"? You don't think an evil giant stomping nearby is a reason to get nervous? The coiling is a DEFENSIVE posture- they do not coil when they are hunting- only when they are trying to scare things off.

"locate/kill"? Why kill an innocent animal that poses you no real threat? Even in places with a LOT of venomous snakes, only a handful of people are bitten every year, and Texas actually has a LOT fewer snake deaths that they have in states in the Southeast, even with a bigger state and more snakes.

If this was your back yard, I MIGHT be on your side, but rattlers (if this is what it was) are excellent rodent hunters. In places where rattlers are hunted, the rodent population skyrockets- rodents start causing economic problems for farmers and others because on of their major predators have been killed off.

Answer 2

there us no such thing as a wood rattle snake, there is a timber rattle snake, it is found near houston, there are also a lot of snakes that mimic it hopeing you will think they are a rattle snake. If you were close enough to see it "coil back" then it was provoked, you unintentionally provoked it by entering his terratory, but notice it ran off instead of comeing after you, most likly it is long gone by know, I wouldn't worry, you have so many snakes in texas that the odds of you seeing that one again are very unlikly, also killing it is pointless, because there are so many you will never get rid of all of them.