The folktale that claims that a rattlesnake' s age can be determined from the number of sections in its rattle is false, but only because the rattles are brittle and sometimes partially or completely break off
So if they were not so brittle, one could reliably determine a rattlesnake' s age simply from the number of sections in its rattle, because one new section is formed each time a rattlesnake molts
Rattlesnakes molt more frequently when young than when old.