New research has demonstrated some interesting and unexpected ways in which rattlesnakes collect water in desert environments — a practice enabled by ways in which the prairie rattlesnakes have evolved. Konrad Rykaczewski, an associate professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport, and Energy, part of the Fulton Schools, says the snakes’ rain catching and water collection abilities mimic that of roses. Using garden sprinklers and video cameras at a location where rattlesnakes hibernate near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a research team recorded almost 100 snakes reacting to simulated rainfall, enabling the researchers to quantify the behavior of the snakes and examine precisely what the snakes can do through specific stages of their physical motions to collect water.