When a chipmunk teases a rattlesnake

From Snowbird, Utah, at a meeting of the Animal Behavior Society

Several of the Northeast’s least ferocious forest creatures taunt rattlesnakes. In woodland-surveillance videos, scientists have watched chipmunks, gray squirrels, and a thrush lunge at and hop over the vipers.

Harassing of North American snakes had previously been reported along the West Coast (SN: 6/26/04, p. 403: Hot Bother: Ground squirrels taunt in infrared; 10/9/99, p.