Back in February 2020, wwhile hiking the trails at the Pismo Preserve near Pismo Beach, California, Tom Georgii and his wife Elena Georgii ran up on two rattlesnakes fighting in a fierce competition to dominate one another.
Friends of Pismo Preserve, Pismo Beach, CA’s Facebook page posted a video of the snakes to their timeline and warned people to watch their step as they are out on the trails. With 11 miles of brand new hiking trails, many people are eager to walk them and with it being mating season these venomous creatures are quicker to be aggressive.
The video showed two snakes rising their bodies off the ground and holding their heads high as they belly bumped and wrapped themselves around each other. They were moving to fast to see they were biting each other, but according to Mental Floss, the rattlesnakes have circulating antibodies in their blood so if the snakes did bite each other they would not die from it.
“The conventional wisdom is that they have circulating antibodies in their blood,” Stephen Mackessy, an expert on venomous snakes told Mental Floss. “This would protect them from their own venom, as well of venom from another snake in their own species.”
Tom said before he saw the snakes fighting his wife saw five other snakes on the hiking trail. He said the irony of seeing the rattlers is that after his wife saw the first three snakes she got on the phone to buy some snake gators. While she was placing the order she saw the rattlesnakes and she got off the call to film them.
“Wildlife hazards such as rattlesnakes are a natural part of most open spaces on the Central Coast,” The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County wrote on Facebook, warning the public. “When you veer off the trail, you greatly increase your chances of running into one of these cuties. But they can be on the trails too.”