Help Project RattleCam Install a New Camera!

The Physiological Ecology of Reptiles Lab (PERL) needs your support! A team of students and a faculty member from the Cal Poly Biological Sciences department are adding a new live-streaming camera on a rattlesnake den, allowing students to study rattlesnake behavior from coast to coast without disturbing these sensitive animals. 

RattleCam Pennsylvania will be placed on a den of Timber Rattlesnakes, adding to our Colorado cam on Prairie Rattlesnakes and our California cam on Western Rattlesnakes!

A major goal of this project is to spread awareness and interest in rattlesnakes, answer questions about rattlesnake behaviors, and educate the public about these fascinating animals, all of which will be accomplished by live-chatting with viewers as footage is streamed live via YouTube. In addition, Biological Sciences students and Liberal Studies students have collaborated to create an 8-day curriculum called RattlEd, where 3rd to 5th graders collect data about rattlesnake behavior by watching the live stream.

Our hope is that by live-streaming footage of rattlesnakes in their natural habitat, people viewing the live-stream in schools, museums, zoos, and online will see rattlesnakes for the docile and ecologically important animals that they really are!

Photo credit Alexis Kovacevic

At the same time, our students are gaining real-world Learn by Doing experience! 

Due to the generosity of our donors, we have already funded the new camera and the live-streaming fees. The main costs associated with the project are the custom hardware that makes the camera run, travel to Pennsylvania to install the camera, and summer pay for Cal Poly students to engage in research and outreach via the rattlecam live feed.

This project offers a wonderful opportunity for Cal Poly students, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, to be involved with important research. Specifically, Cal Poly students will operate the camera remotely, interact with viewers on the Project RattleCam YouTube channel during the live stream, collect data from the live stream, and work with teachers to create educational materials for their students to use while viewing the live stream in the classroom.

Thank you for helping us fund this important rattlesnake research and supporting Cal Poly students!