Massachusetts
Hikers get video of dramatic snake fight between two venomous Massachusetts rattlers: Watch
Watch: Snakes duel in dance-like combat
A group of hikers encountered two snakes doing a ‘combat dance.”
A group of teachers encountered a dramatic snake fight while hiking a trail in Massachusetts’ Blue Hills Reservation.
Erin Noonan and her colleagues from Parker Elementary School in Quincy were hiking near Milton on July 30 when they ran into “two timber rattlesnakes doing a ‘combat dance’,” Noonan told Storyful.
Video footage captured by Noonan shows the snakes wrestling and fighting with each other in the middle of the trail path.
“What are they doing,” one person in the video ask while another hums and another laughs.
Click below to watch these two timber rattlers battle it out
“Oh my god, that’s crazy,” another person can be heard saying.
“Super cool!” says another.
One of the only two venomous species in Massachusetts
Massachusetts is home to 14 species of snakes of which two, including timber rattlesnakes, are venomous, according to the state’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. The other venomous snake species is the copperhead. The two species are found in only a few areas of the state and are state listed as endangered species.
Timber rattlesnakes are large, heavy-bodied pit vipers with broad, triangular heads and variable color patterns, as per the wildlife division. While some are almost jet black, other are sulfur-yellow with black, brown, or rust-colored blotches. Unlike any other rattlesnake species in North America, they don’t have stripes or bands on their heads and faces. Every time they shed skin, they add a new rattle segment, which is an indication of their age.
Massachusetts timber rattlesnakes are active from mid-April to mid-October and can mostly be found in the state’s western counties.
Noonan’s colleague, Susan Maloney, also a teacher at Parker Elementary School Teacher, told WBZ News that she’d never seen anything like this before.
“I’ve been hiking the Blue Hills my whole life,” Maloney said. “Never seen one in there so I was surprised.”
Given the rarity of the encounter, the teachers plan to show the videos and images to their students at school.
“They love studying snakes and frogs, and it does lead into like OK why don’t we do a little studying about snakes? Why don’t we learn about them,” Noonan told WBZ.
What to do if you spot a timber rattlesnake
The Massachusetts wildlife division advises the public to maintain a safe distance if they ever encounter these venomous species.
“Do not handle or otherwise disturb them,” says the department.
The department also requests those who spot these reptiles to submit their observations to them to help with conservation efforts.
“Your reports provide critical information that informs future habitat management and wildlife conservation for future generations,” the dept. says.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
We’re still on the good side of the forecast today. We’ll see a good supply of sun to start, then the clouds will increase and a few showers will sink down from the north in the afternoon. We still manage to make it near 70. (Yay.)
Tomorrow’s high temperatures, however, comes after midnight tonight — before falling toward Saturday morning. If you think that’s confusing, try explaining the snow that’ll be flying in the higher elevations across New England (with solid accumulation above 4k feet).
Yes, the weather is upside down for late May.
We can blame an intense, compact upper-level pool of cold air that broke loose from a larger pool near the Arctic Circle days ago.
The pattern across North America has dropped it in our laps for a day, with cold, rainy, windy consequences.
Rain, wind and… snow?
This will be a sneaky storm. Early on, there might even be a calm, bright sky (very) early Saturday morning. Then the clouds move in and the wind intensifies from the northeast. Gust will briefly peak at 50+ along the coast (40+ inland).
Rain will mix with snow in northern New England, and perhaps in the highest elevations of southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts.
This also depends on the intensity of the precipitation. Heavier bursts of rain can drag down colder air aloft, helping the snowflakes make it from cloud base to your home place (if you live above 1k feet).
Ironically, we’re not expecting a deluge from this storm. Most spots keep near a half inch, with higher amounts near an inch in northeast Mass./southern NH.
And then just like that, it’s over. The storm pulls away Saturday evening, the skies clear and we’re back to sun Sunday. Highs recover to near 70 with the slightest chance for a shower late day.
Better chances – and cooler temps – come both Monday and Tuesday.
Will summer ever take hold? We know from past years that June can really struggle. It appears that the start of the month may not live up to expectations. Although we are at least climbing back to the 80s late next week.
Have a good weekend.
The head of the Massachusetts State Police can’t be sued for an alleged program that secretly recorded officers’ phone conversations with civilians and used them to bring criminal charges, the First Circuit said Thursday.
A group of Massachusetts residents filed a putative class against against Superintendent Geoffrey Noble, as well as Motorola and other companies, over the secret recordings, which were used to propose criminal charges in at least 181 cases without prosecutors’ knowledge, the three judge panel said.
The opinion by Circuit Judge Seth Aframe said the residents, led by Jason Courtemanche, failed to show how they’d be directly …
Massachusetts families are spending 8% of their monthly income on health care, according to a new study. That puts the Bay State toward the higher end of the scale, coming in at No. 12 in the country.
The analysis from personal finance website WalletHub examined where people are spending the most and the least on health care.
Alaska was No. 1 in the U.S., spending over 10% of their income on health care. On the other end of the scale, Utah residents spend 5% of their income on health care.
“Sharp increases in health care costs in recent years have made it difficult for some people to seek essential care,” WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo said. “Even in states with lower-than-average health care prices, residents’ incomes may not be enough to keep up with the cost, especially since virtually every part of Americans’ budgets have been impacted by inflation over the past few years.”
To determine how much families are spending, WalletHub analyzed the prices of five key health care components across all 50 states, then combined those costs and compared them with each state’s median household income.
Read more: 1 MA Town Among 250 Best Places To Live In US News Ranking
Massachusetts spends the most on health care compared to other states in the region, according to the study. Vermont is the next-highest state in the Northeast, ranking at No. 14 with residents spending 7.98% of their income on health care.
Here are the top 10 states where people are spending the most on health care:
- Alaska
- Oregon
- Maine
- Mississippi
- West Virginia
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Montana
- South Dakota
- Louisiana
Check out the full study at WalletHub.
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