Came across a little diamond back?

[andcad]

9un6EJ63Fc8
I think this is a diamond back?

[Julius2314]

Wooohh. Im not sure if it is or not but very cool find :)

[andcad]

Thanks! I wanted to hold it :D

[Will0W783]

Originally posted by andcad: Thanks! I wanted to hold it

That would be a very bad idea. That looked to me to be a western diamondback...which is quite deadly. It might be a Northern Pacific rattlensnake, but the pattern suggested to me WDB.

[andcad]

That would be a very bad idea. That looked to me to be a western diamondback...which is quite deadly. It might be a Northern Pacific rattlensnake, but the pattern suggested to me WDB.

I agree! That's why I left it alone. Besides its illegal to touch any animals where I was.

[Roman]

@Kimberly I don’t think that this is a western diamondback (Crotallus atrox). All western diamondbacks I ever saw either in Zoos or in pictures were brownish in color with a very distinctive black and white striped tail – here the color is more cream with brown blotches and the tail color is the same as the rest of the snake

@ andcad you are from San Diego, so I assume you took the video somewhere in the San Diego vicinity? If so, it cannot be Crotallus atrox, because the geographical range is not that far west.

So from the location it could be the Red Diamond rattlesnake (Crotallus ruber), but this one has also the black and white striped tail, so I don’t think that’s the case.

It could also be the Southwestern speckled rattlesnake (Crotallus mitchelli pyrrhus), but I am not sure about that, the distribution maps I have just scratch the area. Anyway, the coloration is different, so I suppose it was not the speckled rattlesnake.

I think it was the Southern pacific rattlesnake (Crotallus viridis helleri). It occurs in the San Diego vicinity, it is quite common, the coloration of this species is so variable that it fits, the tail has the same color scheme as the rest of the body and the head shows the distinctive black and white strips ranging from the eye to the lower end of the head.

The Northern pacific rattlesnake (Crotallus viridis oreganus) just ranges south to Kern counties, California, so it would fit from the coloration, but the range does not.

Of course all my assumptions are based on the location being somewhere around San Diego. If you took the video someplace else, it could be something completely different (my bet would still be some Crotallus viridis ssp.).

Roman

[andcad]

@Kimberly I don’t think that this is a western diamondback (Crotallus atrox). All western diamondbacks I ever saw either in Zoos or in pictures were brownish in color with a very distinctive black and white striped tail – here the color is more cream with brown blotches and the tail color is the same as the rest of the snake

@ andcad you are from San Diego, so I assume you took the video somewhere in the San Diego vicinity? If so, it cannot be Crotallus atrox, because the geographical range is not that far west.

So from the location it could be the Red Diamond rattlesnake (Crotallus ruber), but this one has also the black and white striped tail, so I don’t think that’s the case.

It could also be the Southwestern speckled rattlesnake (Crotallus mitchelli pyrrhus), but I am not sure about that, the distribution maps I have just scratch the area. Anyway, the coloration is different, so I suppose it was not the speckled rattlesnake.

I think it was the Southern pacific rattlesnake (Crotallus viridis helleri). It occurs in the San Diego vicinity, it is quite common, the coloration of this species is so variable that it fits, the tail has the same color scheme as the rest of the body and the head shows the distinctive black and white strips ranging from the eye to the lower end of the head.

The Northern pacific rattlesnake (Crotallus viridis oreganus) just ranges south to Kern counties, California, so it would fit from the coloration, but the range does not.

Of course all my assumptions are based on the location being somewhere around San Diego. If you took the video someplace else, it could be something completely different (my bet would still be some Crotallus viridis ssp.).

Roman

Yes, I took the video in San Diego. I will post a couple of pics here in a sec.

[andcad]

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg258/andrescadena/photo-4.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg258/andrescadena/photo-5.jpg

[poison123]

Very cool. I'm from sd as well :) That is a pacific rattler very common out there in the santee area along with red diamonds. We don't really have WDB's out here

[poison123]

@Kimberly I don’t think that this is a western diamondback (Crotallus atrox). All western diamondbacks I ever saw either in Zoos or in pictures were brownish in color with a very distinctive black and white striped tail – here the color is more cream with brown blotches and the tail color is the same as the rest of the snake

@ andcad you are from San Diego, so I assume you took the video somewhere in the San Diego vicinity? If so, it cannot be Crotallus atrox, because the geographical range is not that far west.

So from the location it could be the Red Diamond rattlesnake (Crotallus ruber), but this one has also the black and white striped tail, so I don’t think that’s the case.

It could also be the Southwestern speckled rattlesnake (Crotallus mitchelli pyrrhus), but I am not sure about that, the distribution maps I have just scratch the area. Anyway, the coloration is different, so I suppose it was not the speckled rattlesnake.

I think it was the Southern pacific rattlesnake (Crotallus viridis helleri). It occurs in the San Diego vicinity, it is quite common, the coloration of this species is so variable that it fits, the tail has the same color scheme as the rest of the body and the head shows the distinctive black and white strips ranging from the eye to the lower end of the head.

The Northern pacific rattlesnake (Crotallus viridis oreganus) just ranges south to Kern counties, California, so it would fit from the coloration, but the range does not.

Of course all my assumptions are based on the location being somewhere around San Diego. If you took the video someplace else, it could be something completely different (my bet would still be some Crotallus viridis ssp.).

Roman

May i ask where you got all this info? Pacific rattlers are very common out here. I've seen plenty.

Edit: Just reread everything and it made sense lol

[andcad]

I agree it's a pacific rat. I have come across many of these. 3 of them in Anza Borrego desert (Indian head hike) in the middle of summer last year. I would love to keep one but I know I can't. It's hard having snakes and coming across animals like these...

[Roman]

May i ask where you got all this info? Pacific rattlers are very common out here. I've seen plenty.

Just the good old fashioned way – I got some books and tried to find out what it is.

For starters I used

J. L. Behler, F. W. King: The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians

and

R. C. Stebbins: Peterson Field Guides Western Reptiles and Amphibians

For the details I used

M. Rubio: Rattlesnakes Portrait of a Predator

and

C. H. Ernst: Venomous Reptiles of North America

The distribution maps are larger here, so it was easier to see where the geographical range of a species ended.

Finally I checked some pictures in the internet to verify the identification.

Roman