Came across a little diamond back?

[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