Abstract
Rattlesnakes and many other viperids typically strike and release adult rodent prey (Gans, 1966; O’Connell et al., 1982; Radcliffe et al., 1980), allowing the envenomated rodent to wander up to 600 cm before succumbing to the venom (Estep et al., 1981). The snakes then follow the chemical trail left by the envenomated prey. Although this predatory strategy risks losing the prey, it avoids tissue damage that could result from rodent teeth and claws if the snake attempted to hold the struggling prey after the strike. Even some of the deadliest elapids exhibit this strategy when they prey upon rodents (Chiszar et al., under review; Radcliffe et al., 1982; Shine & Covacevich, 1982), indicating that rodents are formidable prey and that the strike-release-trail system probably appeared very early in the evolution of venomous snakes (see Marx & Rabb, 1965, for a discussion of viperid evolution).
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Chiszar, D., Radcliffe, C.W., Scudder, K.M., Duvall, D. (1983). Strike-Induced Chemosensory Searching by Rattlesnakes: The Role of Envenomation-Related Chemical Cues in the Post-Strike Environment. In: Müller-Schwarze, D., Silverstein, R.M. (eds) Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 3. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9652-0_1
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