Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A hunter scouting for locations in New Mexico said he was watching the ground for rattlesnakes when he walked under one perched in a tree.
Frank Gonzalez, 33, captured video of the 5-to-6-foot rattlesnake he found perched in a tree while he was scouting for deer hunting locations in southwestern New Mexico.
"I had stepped on a rattlesnake on a hunting trip last year, so my eyes were trained to the ground, making sure that didn't happen again," Gonzalez told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Then I saw this thing up in the leaves, swinging back and forth. At first I thought it was a piece of string the wind had taken up there."
Gonzalez said he was shocked by the snake's unusual location.
"It's scary enough to have them on the ground," he said. "But now they're in the dang trees."
Snake experts said rattlesnakes can climb trees, but it's not common. Commenters suggested the snake may have been dropped by a bird of prey, but Gonzalez said it did not appear to be injured.