Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake- Photos by Jerry Schudda
Description
Adults commonly grow to 120 cm in length. Specimens over 150 cm are infrequently encountered, while those over 180 cm are very rare. The maximum reported length considered to be reliable is 213 cm. Males become much larger than females, although this difference in size does not occur until after they have reached sexual maturity.
The color pattern generally consists of a dusty looking gray-brown ground color, but it may also be pinkish brown, brick red, yellowish, pinkish or chalky white. This ground color is overlaid dorsally with a series of 24-25 dorsal body blotches that are dark gray-brown to brown in color. The first of these may be a pair of short stripes that extend backwards to eventually merge. Some of the first few blotches may be somewhat rectangular, but then become more hexagonal and eventually take on a distinctive diamond shape. The tail has 2-8 (usually 4-6) black bands separated by interspaces that are ash white or pale gray. There is a postocular stripe that is smoky gray or dark gray-brown and extends diagonally from the lower edge of the eye across the side of the head.
Common names
Western diamondback rattlesnake, western diamond-backed rattlesnake,Adobe snake, Arizona diamond rattlesnake, coon tail, desert diamond-back, desert diamond rattlesnake, fierce rattlesnake, spitting rattlesnake, Texan rattlesnake, Texas diamond-back (rattlesnake),western diamond rattlesnake.
Geographic range
In the United States it occurs in the following states: central and western Arkansas, Oklahoma excluding the northeast, north-central region and the panhandle, Texas excluding the northern panhandle and the east, southern and central New Mexico and Arizona, extreme southern Nevada, and in southeastern California on either side of the Chocolate Mountains.
HabitatFound in areas ranging from flat coastal plains to steep rocky canyons and hillsides. It is associated with many different vegetation types, including desert, sandy creosote areas, mesquite grassland, desertscrub, and pine-oak forests. Towards the southern edge of its range, this species may be found in thornforest and tropical deciduous forest.
Behavior and reproduction
Western diamondbacks can live for more than twenty years, but life expectancy is typically shorter because of hunting and human expansion. Solitary outside of mating season, they are one of the more aggressive species found in North America because they rarely back away from confrontation. When threatened they usually coil and shake their rattle to warn an aggressor that it has stumbled upon something dangerous.
C. atrox, like other desert snakes, can go for up to two years without food in the wild. A 5½ month starvation study showed that the snakes reduced energy expenditures by an average of 80% over the length of the study. The snakes also feed from within on energy-rich lipid stores. The most interesting finding was that the snakes grew during the study, indicating that while the snake's mass was shrinking, it was putting its resources into skeletal muscles and bone.
In the winter, western diamondbacks hibernate in caves or burrows sometimes with many other species of snakes.
The snake is a poor climber and primarily hunts small mammals, but will also feed on birds, small reptiles and amphibians. They hunt (or ambush prey) at night or early morning using a type of infrared sense prominently found in pit vipers. Although adult specimens have no natural predators, hawks, eagles, and other snakes can prey on young or adolescent individuals.
Rattlesnakes, including C. atrox, are viviparous. Gestation period lasts six or seven months and broods average about a dozen young. However, the young only stay with the mother for a few hours before they set off on their own to hunt and find recluse, thus the mortality rate is very high.
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