Paradoxical Exception to Island Tameness: Increased Defensiveness in an Insular Population of Rattlesnakes by William K. Hayes, Carl E. Person, Gerad A. Fox, Julie L. King, Erick Briggs, Eric C. K. Gren

“…Because some insular rattlesnake populations lack functional rattles, presumably the consequence of relaxed selection from reduced predation, we hypothesized that the Santa Catalina Island, California, USA, population of the southern Pacific rattlesnake (<i>Crotalus helleri</i>, which possesses a functional rattle), would exhibit a decrement in defensive behavior relative to their mainland counterparts. …”
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