A San Antonio TV station is questioning whether the rattlesnake in a field of bluebonnets featured in a viral Facebook photo is alive, or a taxidermied and posed dead snake.



Given that the topic "snake in bluebonnets" has its own section on hoax debunker website Snopes.com, and it wouldn't be the first time a taxidermist has claimed to play this particular prank. it's a valid question.

From KSAT:

The picture, submitted to a news station’s Facebook page in Austin, shows a rattlesnake coiled among bluebonnets.

The picture has many reconsidering their annual trip to take pictures in the bluebonnets, believing it may be too dangerous.

Some experts, however, are questioning the validity of the picture.

"It’s a real picture,” said Blaine Easton, a snake expert with the South Texas Herpetology Society. “I'm not sure that snake is alive. I think the snake is dead and mounted by a taxidermist."

According to Easton, it is the snake’s neck position that causes him to question the picture. Easton said it did raise a valid concern.

"I have found in the middle of bluebonnets, on some ranches, rattlesnakes sitting there,” said Easton.

After all, Texas is home to 113 species of snakes. The moral, according to experts, is to just be cautious.

Watch their report...