Latest / Stories from Mustang News on KCPR / One livestream at a time, Project Rattle Cam shifts rattlesnake narrative

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One livestream at a time, Project Rattle Cam shifts rattlesnake narrative · Stories from Mustang News on KCPR

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: If you've ever wondered what rattlesnakes do when no one's around, Well,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: turns out a lot of people wonder the same thing.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Thousands watch the answer unfold live on YouTube. It's all
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: part of the Rattlecam project, where scientists set up cameras
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: over large rattlesnake dens in Colorado and California. The idea
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: came from biologist doctor Emily Taylor, director of the Physiological
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Ecology and Reptiles Lab. Taylor's team studies everything from the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: environment surrounding the snakes to their behavioral impacts, and the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: live cameras have opened up a variety of unexpected discoveries.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Is that, you know, people's fy on wildlife, especially birds
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: in their nests with these cameras all the time, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: we were the first ones to put them on a
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: big rattlesnake den, and we've just been learning all kinds
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of crazy stuff.
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  Speaker 1: The cameras captured behaviors that the team hadn't seen anywhere else.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: To do, these interesting behaviors where they kind of twitch
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: at each other. We don't know what that means. We
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: got to analyze them. But it occurred to me that
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: first of all, it's a lot of work to analyze
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: this all ourselves. And secondly, like other people don't get
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: to see it.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So they open the stream up to the public and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the response was huge.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Those are all people who are not you know, they
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: wouldn't call themselves biologists until they start doing that. They're
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: helping us with data collection. Of course, we help them
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: get an experience of being a sident. We've had like
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: four and a half million view and we have almost
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: twenty two thousand subscribers. It's a lot.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: First year biological science graduate student Stella Raymond not only
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: helps operate the cameras but studies the snake's behavior and instincts,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and she's watched the community grow. The projects have become
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: as much about people as they are about snakes.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: People will ask like, hey, can we look over here
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and can we see if there's any snakes out. Part
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: of what I really like about this technology live and
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: we're able to, you know, give access to the people
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: in the community who want.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: To learn about these snakes and are curious.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Viewers have formed real emotional bonds, even mourning snakes they
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: followed for years.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: That we're following Pansy. She was like visibly sick.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: She had like an inflamed cloaca.
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: And so we were watching your progression and yesterday she
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: flipped over a bit, and it's just really not don't
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: this is not often like, well, don't really have empathy
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: for these creatures.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Raymond says the livestream helps people build their own connection
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to the snakes, letting them discover what makes these animals misunderstood.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Pictures are just defensive displays and they look scary.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: And intimidating, But when we look at these snakes in
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: the wild, they are undisturbed, They are in a remote setting,
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: and so they don't have any human contact.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: The rattlecim isn't just changing what we know about rattlesnakes.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: It's changing how people feel and perceive them.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Try and you know, increase awareness about their importance through
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: just like not directly giving them the facts, but allowing
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: them to just observe and ask.
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: Questions when they want to.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: As time has gone on, I found like there's so
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: much power in.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: This community, so it's reaching a broader audience.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: To check out live footage of the rattlesnakes, go to
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Project Rattlecam on YouTube or check out their website. At
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  Speaker 1: rattlecam dot org. For rustingnews on KCPR, I'm Melissa Park