Recently, a video posted on Facebook of a large rattlesnake crossing a trail at Brown County State Park went viral. Besides thousands of shares, the video was picked up by numerous online news outlets across the country.

I ask myself, why?

What is the driving emotion behind this response? Fear? Exhilaration due to risk? Close encounters? Curiosity? Does mass hysteria help bond us as humans? For a brief moment are people connected through a common fear?

The fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias in humans. The theory that humans have an innate fear of snakes has recently been modified. Now, studies show that humans have a disposition to associate fear with a slithering motion — but the tendency must be reinforced by stimuli early in life.

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One study shows that as early as 2 months old, an infant can acquire fear of snakes from a parent’s physical or verbal reaction to the presence (or video) of a snake. On the other hand, children who have positive encounters with snakes and see adults who exhibit positive reactions learn not to fear snakes. Furthermore, as a child learns more about snakes, natural curiosity replaces fear.

Brown County State Park is one of the few places left where one can see a timber rattlesnake in the wild. Timber rattlesnakes require undisturbed deciduous forests with rocky ridges for suitable den sites. Communal dens are used for both birthing and hibernating, and an individual snake returns to the same den year after year. In Indiana, the populations are primarily found on state and federal public lands in the south-central portion of the state.

Due to habitat destruction, snake hunting and commercial collection for the pet trade, populations of rattlesnake are diminishing across their range. In Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia and New Hampshire, the timber rattlesnake is listed as a state endangered species. It is illegal to kill, collect, transport or relocate these snakes without a permit.

Not only are timber rattlesnakes rare, they also are difficult to spot due to their excellent camouflage among forest leaves and fallen logs. Seeing a timber rattlesnake crossing a trail actually is an exciting and special event.

Most individual snakes are docile and often will remain coiled or stretched out without moving if left alone. Rattlesnakes prefer to conserve their venom for edible prey. Even when threatened, they will give a warning with their rattle before striking.

In August, large males may be on the move in search of females for mating. They follow olfactory cues to locate potential mates. After mating, the sperm remain viable within the female over the winter, and fertilization occurs in the spring.

Timber rattlesnakes are ovo-viviparous, which means that they retain their eggs internally during gestation and give birth to live offspring. Birthing occurs in maternity dens, and mothers protect their offspring for seven to 10 days until the young are ready to disperse. A healthy female may reproduce only three to four times in her entire life — which, on average, is 20 years.

Adults can reach up to six feet long by maturity, with males being larger than females.

Timber rattlesnakes play a key role in our hardwood forest ecosystems as predators of mice, voles, chipmunks and squirrels. Like all pit vipers, rattlesnakes have heat-sensitive pit organs between their eyes and nostrils, which enable them to locate their warm-blooded prey. In addition, they have keen senses of smell and taste to detect the scents of small mammals.

As sit-and-wait predators, rattlesnakes will remain coiled with their heads on alert as they wait for a potential prey to approach. They strike their prey rapidly with a bite that delivers venom through two fangs. They then wait for the prey to die before swallowing it whole. If the prey is able to stagger off before dying, the snake follows by once again using smell and taste as a guide.

Unfortunately, the timber rattlesnake has an undeserved bad reputation. In fact, its scientific name is Crotalus horridus, which doesn’t help a bit.

What is the fear? Fear of death? Actually, your chance of dying at a dance party is 1 out of 100,000, yet your chance of dying from a venomous snakebite is 1 in 50 million. Lightning strikes, motorcycle accidents, airplane crashes and cataclysmic storms all pose a much greater threat than snakebites. Yet, the fear and the fascination with fear continue to affect our relationship to snakes.

It would be better for us and for the rattlesnakes of the world to replace our fear with a healthy respect and an appropriate distance. By carrying such an attitude with us when we visit natural places, we can look forward to the possibility of observing a snake — from a safe distance — in the wild and can better appreciate their beauty as well as their role in nature.

Leslie Bishop is a Brown County resident and retired biology professor from Earlham College. She can be reached through the newspaper at [email protected].