In February, a team of biologists found that female rattlesnakes will consume, on average, 11 percent of their postpartum mass, mostly in stillborn or non-viable offspring. They do it to recover some of their strength after giving birth and to get ready for subsequent reproduction.

New rattlesnake mothers cannibalizing some of their stillborn young is more common than not: Of the 190 females snakes in the study, 68 percent consumed at least some of their babies.