- Welcome back to What's Inside.

I'm Lincoln, this is Dan.

And today we're at the Phoenix Zoo.

- We came here because we wanted to see

What's Inside of a rattlesnake rattle.

A lot of you guys have recommended that,

and I thought, "That's a really cool idea."

But before we just cut open a rattlesnake rattle,

we gotta come to the zoo and see a bunch of snakes.

(children laughing and yelling)

♫ Phoenix Zoo ♫

(dramatic percussion music)

- My dad bought this rattlesnake rattle on Ebay

from a guy in Texas.

And we brought it here to compare.

- [Dan] So here's our rattle that we got

from a rattlesnake in Texas.

Here's one on an actual snake, as he slithers away.

(softer dramatic percussion music)

That's not a rattlesnake, but that dude is creepy.

Whoa, how would you like to come across that guy?

- That would be, that would freak me out.

I'd go running in the other direction.

Oh, look at this guy's head!

- [Dan] Where is it?

Oh, he has a big, old body.

- We're back home from the really cool zoo

in Arizona, and now it's time to cut

this rattlesnake rattle open.

- That was a great zoo, and we brought

this rattlesnake rattle all the way home.

(dry rattles)

- Whoa!

- You can hear it through the plastic bags.

One thing that we learned over there

is that there's 36 different species of rattlesnakes

in the world. - [Lincoln] Scary.

- That's a lot.

I've seen rattlesnakes on the golf course

and then while hiking through the mountains

and the rock areas in southern Utah and Arizona.

- That would scare me so bad.

- But the cool thing is, they, obviously

if you're not familiar with a rattlesnake,

they put their tail up and then they shake this away,

shake this rattle.

And then, that's what keeps predators away.

So, it's interesting because these guys can shake

this thing 50 times every, what do you think?

- Second.

- Every second.

And they can do it sustained for up to three

or four hours.

Your job today Lincoln, why don't you take

it out and then put it on this paper towel.

- Whoa!

That feels really weird!

It's like you can move it so easily.

- [Dan] All right, so lift it up from the body

part of it.

- [Lincoln] Ugh!

- [Dan] From like right there, part of it.

and try to shake it.

So you can try to make the noise, like.

(dry rattles)

- Like that, kind of?

- [Dan] Well, they do it 50 times in a second.

- I can't do it, I can't move this thing 50 times

in a second.

(laughter)

(dry rattles)

- [Dan] Okay, I'm gonna take this razor blade

and just cut into it.

- [Lincoln] Eek!

- [Dan] All right, let's go right down, what do you think?

Right down the middle?

- [Lincoln] Yeah, that would be good.

- [Dan] Like that.

It's gonna hurt the table.

I should probably put something underneath it.

Okay, we got a cutting board.

Now it doesn't, it's not gonna scratch the table

when I cut through it, so let's go.

(cracking)

Dude, that's hard.

That's hard material right there.

- [Lincoln] I don't think it's designed

for people to cut them in half.

- [Dan] Yeah, these are tough.

(cracking)

Sounds kinda gross.

- [Lincoln] It is kinda gross.

(cracking)

- [Dan] Ooh. - [Lincoln] Ooh.

Yuck!

(cracking)

- [Dan] Oop!

Ripped it in half.

- [Lincoln] ♫ You ripped it in half ♫

(laughter)

- [Dan] Let's try opening it up a little bit

and see what it looks like.

- [Lincoln] Yucky!

- [Dan] There's nothing inside of it.

What do you bet it just has this little

shell-type material on the outside?

That's really interesting.

It's not, there's no balls inside of it

that make it rattle or anything.

If I squeeze it hard, watch this, I'm barely squeezing.

I squeeze almost the entire thing.

So, at birth for a rattlesnake, the first button is

on there, it's called the pre-button.

And then a few days later, they get their first button

on top of it and it's called a button.

But it still doesn't make any noise until they get

the second layer on top of it.

That way it can shake and they can hit

on each other and make the noise.

Now sometimes people think that the longer

the rattle, that the older that the snake is.

Not necessarily true, because a lot of times

they lose 'em, whether they're in a fight

or a predator comes and gets 'em, or they lose

it between a rock, and they'll lose some

of the buttons.

But every time that they shed their skin,

a new layer is grown on the end of it.

- It still is disgusting that this was on a snake once.

- (laughing) Take a smell of it.

See what it smells like, the body of it.

- Aw! It smells like dog!

- Uh dog, it's nasty.

So with a lot of our videos we like to post

little things on Instagram and Twitter

and Facebook to kinda show what we're up to.

So, if you're not followin' us on there,

go follow us and you can keep up to date,

before the videos come out.

Thanks to everyone that recommended

that we cut open a rattlesnake rattle.

And if you have any other good ideas

of things that we should cut open and explore,

just let us know.

Look, it's like we're in the jungle,

except there's an airplane about to land in the jungle.

See those guys, Lincoln? - [Lincoln] Yeah.

- [Dan] I had to do a school project on this,

when I went to Arizona State, on these guys.

- [Lincoln] Did they usually bite and stand

on top of them?

(bright, happy music)