
No. Rattlesnakes are defensive, not aggressive. This may seem like a semantic issue, but the discussion of aggressive rattlesnakes mischaracterizes their behavior. In reality, a rattling snake is just trying to defend itself.
This Western Diamondback Rattlesnake rattled the second CJ found it, and kept on rattling through the entire process. Buzzing in the bucket, in the car, subsequent hike, and fading as CJ walked away after releasing it under a large boulder.
This behavior is often characterized as “angry” or even “aggressive”, but it is neither. From the snakes’ perspective, this is a predation event. Of course the animal would try to prevent its own death.
