Colorado RattleCam crawling with venomous snakes you must see yourself

• Viewers can observe the venomous snakes as they emerge from hibernation, bask and give birth.
• The camera provides close-up views of the snakes’ features, such as their pupils and forked tongues.

Guarantee you won’t stick your hand in a rock crevice without first looking while hiking after you watch the Colorado RattleCam livestream of a rattlesnake mega den.

Yikes! Viewing the livestream is like watching a scary movie, equally entertaining and terrifying.

The mega den on undisclosed private property in Larimer County is crawling with the venomous snakes now that sunny weather has returned.

Project RattleCam is a collaboration between Cal Poly, Central Coast Snake Services and Dickinson College that allows viewers to observe rattlesnakes a lot closer than you would ever want to get in an effort to educate the public about these reptiles with a reputation.

A high-definition camera continually scans and zooms in and out on the rocky outcropping, where rattlesnakes slither among the rocks, bask in the sun and will give birth to live babies at this rookery, or communal birthing site, in late August and early September.

Watching the May 12 livestream, which includes a live chat, was fascinating.

The camera zoomed to show the patterns on the snakes that slowly slithered among the lichen-splotched rocks, a rattlesnake resting its head on a rock while soaking in the sun and rattlesnakes hiding in the brush.

The highlight was the camera capturing a rattlesnake muscling along a rock shelf. It zoomed so close you could see the vertical, slit-like pupils; pit organs on the snake’s face used to detect heat from prey; and the black forked tongue probing the air to locate prey and check out its environment.

Unless you want to get some work done, the best way to view the livestream is checking in every so often to scan the stream and see when the camera detects a rattlesnake. Otherwise, the livestream can take you down a rabbit hole, or in this case a rattlesnake den.

Here’s a timeline for your rattlesnake viewing pleasure

• April-May: Rattlesnakes emerge from hibernation.
• Early June: Most of the snakes travel downhill from the den to nearby meadows and shrublands where they spend the summer searching for food.
• Late August-early September: Pregnant rattlesnakes return to the den to give birth.
• Late September-October: The rest of the rattlesnakes return to the den.

Miles Blumhardt covers news and the outdoors for the Coloradoan.