By Sid Perkins
America’s Snake
Ted Levin
Univ. of Chicago, $35
Turns out, it is possible to be a lucky snakebite victim. Depending on the circumstances (and the snake’s mood, presumably), a timber rattlesnake may choose to strike its prey with only one fang and to pump out little or no venom when it does so. Far from being mindless, hair-triggered biting machines, timber rattlers don’t always strike — even when stepped on.
In America’s Snake, zoologist and snake enthusiast Ted Levin thoroughly recounts the anatomical marvels of the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) from head to tail. For instance, the snake — promoted by Benjamin Franklin as a symbol of the nascent United States, hence the book’s title — has heat-sensitive pits on its snout that can sense temperature differences as small as 0.001 degrees Celsius. Tail muscles can shake the namesake rattle almost 90 times per second, uninterrupted, for hours.