Snake Eater

Source The American badger digs rattlesnakes out of their dens, absorbs their bites, and eats them. In South Dakota, it is considered the rattlesnake’s most important predator. A rattlesnake in its den is supposed to be safe. The burrow is narrow, dark, defensible, and the snake can coil and strike at anything that enters. Against a badger, the den is a trap. The badger does not enter the hole. It excavates around it. The same claws that can dig through blacktop and rip open a ground squirrel tunnel in seconds will peel the roof off a rattlesnake den and expose the coiled animal to open air, where the badger’s jaws are waiting. The snake strikes. The badger takes the hit. The badger keeps digging. DesertUSA describes this plainly: the badger hunts one of its favorite prey, the rattlesnake, with impunity because, with the exception of its nose, it seems to be immune to the serpent’s venom. The resistance is not fully understood. The badger’s first line of defense is physical, not…