Stumbled across this freshly-fed guy in the park behind my house today (warning: not dial-up friendly). Uh…baby rattler, right? I think I got a little closer than prudence would dictate, but he was so lethargic I thought he was dead. This is Southern California, Ventura County.
Western diamondback rattlesnake?
:eek: EEK! Sure looks like it. Glad I didn’t poke him with a stick or anything.
Most definitely a rattlesnake. But doesn’t look to be any “baby” - looks pretty mature (especially to have munched whatever was still in the belly).
Tips to look for:
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Rattle on end of tail (and yes, that is what you’re seeing in your pictures). But they can lose their rattle, so not always the best indication. And, as it appears in your case, they may not actually rattle the rattle.
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Triangular shaped head (as opposed to to more “thumb shaped” relative to the neck/body).
Found one in my backyard a couple months ago (also digesting). I think all the extra rain we’ve received this year has really boosted the whole foodchain.
Southern Pacific Rattlesnake. No diamondbacks in Ventura County, far as I know. Actually, no other species of rattlesnakes in that area, period. You have to get farther inland or south before you start picking up other species, for the most part in the southeastern part of the state. You can find diamondbacks in San Bernadino, Imperial or Riverside counties.
Here’s a handy guide for the state of CA, with range maps.
cormac’s right—it ain’t no baby. It was about 20” long. Very skinny though—if he didn’t have the bolus inside he would have been narrower than a felt-tip marker. Now I’m really glad I didn’t get any closer. When I first saw him I squatted down to get a better look, but when I saw the translucent thing on the tail I backed off. I shot the rattle from behind with the zoom lens.
Shooting from a distance was probably a good choice; rattlers can strike surprisingly far. Since this one was digesting, you were probably pretty safe, but no sense taking chances. Each bead on a rattler’s rattles is formed when it sheds its skin yearly, so yours is a minimum of 3 years old. Babies have no rattles and are poisonous, so sometimes people do stupid things with them. The rattle-bead-counting only establishes a minimum, because the beads can break off, but since the snake is so small and its rattles terminate in a pointy bead, it’s probably a 3-year-old.
ETA: I should check my facts before posting, not after; snakes can shed their skins more than once a year in warm climates, which yours is. Your snake may be younger than three years.
I thought they could shed their skin more often than once a year.
Probably correct. Could also be a Mojave Rattler though. Note the black-and-white rings at tail.
SS
Oh, he’s so pretty!
You should have offered him an after-dinner mint. They’re wafer-thin!
Behind your house? Aren’t they more typically seen on planes?
Yeah, but many rattlers have tail rings, including the SoPac. But more specifically note this from the wiki description: In adults, the base of the tail and the first segment of the rattle are brown.
Looking at the close-ups of Washoe’s very nice tail & rattle pictures shows this clearly.
Did you happen to catch the title of the .html document? 