The indigo snake appeared without a sound. It was the summer of 2020, and the trails around the visitor center of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, seventeen miles northeast of the Lower Rio Grande Valley city of Los Frenos, were cloaked in the eerie hush of early dawn. The dark blue serpent emerged from the thornscrub, tongue flicking, a six-foot streak of darkness in the morning gloom. Green jays and chachalacas scattered as it slithered across the leaf litter toward a bird fountain. The snake paid them—and me—no mind, moving with the absolute confidence of an apex predator. It ducked its head in the water and drank in long, silent gulps. A moment later it was gone, vanishing back into the forest to hunt. It was…The post The Texas Indigo Snake Eats Rattlers for Breakfast appeared first on Texas Monthly.