Belize City, Beliz
above: In Manitoba, Canada, when hundreds of garter snakes emerge from hibernation all together, some of the males mimic female behavior, and, thereby, attract other males to wrap the female-imitators in huge mating balls of dozens of male snakes — to what advantage, scientists still aren’t sure.
facing page: Rattlesnakes have low reproductive rates, so killing adults has a disproportionately negative impact on populations; nonetheless, in many states “Rattlesnake Roundups” still celebrate the mass slaughter—with just one event in Sweetwater, Texas in 2016 resulting in the capturing, butchering, skinning, or otherwise cruelly disposing of 25,000 pounds of rattlesnakes.
Bastrop, TX
