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michael-ray β Crotalus atrox
Published: 2011-04-08 00:41:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 3908; Favourites: 70; Downloads: 730
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Description
Crotalus atrox - Western diamondback rattlesnake from recently. We found this female coiled with a larger male, basking near a densite.I changed the style up a bit from how I usually shoot, as well.
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Comments: 32
I could be wrong, but she looks more like a green Mojave to me. A PMS-y green Mojave, given her expression. She looks more annoyed than frightened.
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Nope. This individual is from border of Arkansas and Oklahoma, a few hundred miles outside the range of Mohaves...
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Oooh what a lovely shot here! I love her pose!
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Random question.....how do you tell the females from the males?
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Great question. With a lot of snakes, it can be nearly impossible to distinguish the sexes apart, visually. A rather general rule of thumb is that males of a species will tend to have a longer tail than a female of the same species, as it requires room in the tail to store the inverted hemipenes. This isn't true of a lot of species, but it is the case with most. Differentiating between the two when it came to these two diamondbacks found together, however, was simple by first appearances alone. They are a breeding pair, and the male was much larger than the average female gets. A lot of species of snakes will have larger females and smaller males, but again, this is a guideline more than a rule. A lot of snakes though, when found alone, we'll end up using a sexing probe to justify the correct sex. This is the best way to get a guaranteed sexing of an adult. You can also "pop" the hemipenes of a juvenile snake to tell the sex (on some species.)
As far as all of the snakes I find in the field, however, I have worked with and sexed enough of most genera/related genera that I can be pretty accurate (and confident) with sexing just based on visual cues, but if I'm actually collecting data or anything, I will not hesitate to probe a snake if there is any uncertainty as to which gender it might actually be.
I hope this helped you a bit, and feel free to ask me anything else you want to know!
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Awesome to have a lil lesson there on sexing snakes. 
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Neat. I donβt know if Iβve ever heard of someone going out specifically to photograph wild snakes. Can you tell gender just by looking at them?
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There are actually a lot of us that do it. I have a good 20 friends that I go out with in different places throughout California, Arizona, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
Some snakes are easily told apart visually by a few different ways. Some are sexually dimorphic (males and females will be different, visually). A lot of species, the male will have a longer tail than a female, to accommodate the hemipenes. It's hard to tell for someone that doesn't know what to look for, but after you sex hundreds of snakes, you start to notice even small differences.
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Neat. I wasnβt sure if you were going out to catch them or just look at them, but I guess if youβve handled captive snakes in the past that would help.
I live in Oklahoma and I havenβt seen many snakes, just some water moccasins and garter snakes. Iβve heard some people try to kill any rattlesnakes they see, so Iβm not sure how many of those are still out there.
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This one was found in eastern Oklahoma (Le Flore County) about a half mile from the Arkansas border. There are a few spots left on the Eastern edge where there are A LOT of timber rattlesnakes. You can find diamondbacks just about anywhere in central and eastern oklahoma though. Even though they have all the roundups and whatnot, the population is still pretty stable throughout much of the state.
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One of my favorite snakes to work with for sure.
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I agree, they are so easy to handle. They are generally such a laid-back snake, one of my favorite to find when i am out thats fore sure!
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Usually, but I have seen some pretty agressive individuals. The two we got the other day were pretty aggro.
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I guess they were very deserving of the name atrox, meaning fierce or savage! I love ur gallery by the way, im guna add you to my watch list!!
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Thanks a lot, man! I'm going out tonight for the fourth day in a row, looking for timbers this time. I got my first copperhead of the year last night, and it's warmer tonight, so I'm hoping this will start things moving a bit.
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Gah, Lucky!! Iv never found a horridus, I unfortunately live in the wrong part of Texas. I caught my first Copperhead ever last year near Fort Davis, My girlfriend really wants us to go on a trip to some Timber territory.
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Didn't score one tonight. I have a friend coming from back home to herp Monday and Tuesday, so I'll be herping from early morning 'til late at night both days, we'll see what turns up. I got my first copperhead of the year last night, and got two cottonmouths tonight though, so hots are definitely starting to move. I'm going to be targeting pygmies really hard on Tuesday though.
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Yah, i know the hots are moving. I guess it was about weeks ago i went out and caught 2 Prairie Rattlers, and last weekend when i was turkey hunting i caught a Western Diamondback in our bunk house after a morning hunt. Man, you make me with i lived in a better herping area and had more time to do it. Good luck with the Pygmies, catch one for me!!
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Oh nice. I ended up walking two cottonmouths last night while tracking some calling Cope's grey treefrogs last night amidst a huge population of calling Dwarf American toads.
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Beautiful shot! I've only seen C. horridus up close (handled to identify gender with probe)
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Nice! I haven't found a horridus yet, but I'm hoping to tonight.. I've only been in their range since the end of last year, so tonight is gonna be my first timber oriented outing.
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I really like this shot, it's more natural, yet still very good quality! How big would you reckon this girl was?
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She was just over 4 feet, somewhere right around 4'4" or so, and the male we found was a little over 5 feet, plus I caught a coachwhip that was a bit over 6 feet. Completely made up for finding nothing but tons of tiny snakes yesterday. Hahaha
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Not at all. I have spent a lot of time working with them in the field.
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