The hunting party proceeded to the next promising rattlesnake den down the canyon. As we traveled, the raw beauty of the place became more and more evident. Some will question such a description. After all, did I not earlier refer to this as a place that only a rattlesnake could love? [...]
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At about 10:15 A.M., the Nolan County Coliseum loudspeaker announced that the rattlesnake roundup guided hunt was about to begin. All the registered hunters gathered at the back of the coliseum to await further instructions. The guide for this hunt was Eddie Gomez, an experienced rattlesnake hunter of considerable repute… [...] March 11, 2010: The 52nd Annual Sweetwater, Texas, Rattlesnake Roundup is off and running, and BugsInTheNews is there. I arrived in Sweetwater last night, and spent the day touring the grounds at the Nolan County Coliseum, meeting a huge number of really nice people from all over the world, and checking out some of the finest BBQ rigs found anywhere on Planet Earth. I even became acquainted–albeit informally, immediately after a kitchen fire threatened to destroy the Jaycee BBQ cookshed–with Terry Armstrong, president of the Sweetwater Jaycees, the hosts of the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. Terry was understandably overwrought at the time, and less than congenial. Hopefully tomorrow, at the Jaycee-led rattlesnake hunt, we’ll meet under more favorable circumstances. [...] If you see a snake with these markings on a trail, will you know to give it a wide berth? Using the material that follows you will learn to tentatively identify snakes by their markings and coloration, and–in particular–to distinguish between dangerous and non-dangerous snakes quickly. Numerous photos, like the one above, are included for that purpose. These photos are constantly added to, so come back to this page frequently. The more often you peruse these images, the more likely you will make the right decision when out in the wild. [...] Snakes have no moveable eyelids, limbs, ear openings, sternums, or urinary bladders. Most species have only one functioning lung, although many have a second, vestigial (essentially non-functioning, or only marginally functional) lung. The organs in the snake body are necessarily elongated, to fit within the narrow confines of its body cavity. Lizards differ from snakes anatomically by having their two lower jawbones fused together, while the lower jawbones of the snake are connected by a flexible band of tough tissue that enables the two bones to articulate separately. The quadrate bones that connect… [...] The etymology of the generic name, Nerodia, is described elsewhere. The specific and subspecies names are the same, indicating this is considered the type-species; two Mexican subspecies, N. rhombifer werleri, and N. rhombifer blanchardi, respectively known locally as Tabasco and Tampico Diamond-backed water snakes, are found in northeast Mexico (The Mexican state of Tamaulipas: city of Tampico) and south along the Mexican Gulf and Atlantic coast (The Mexican state of Tabasco). The name rhombifer was assigned by the American herpetologist and physician Edward Hallowell (1808-1860) in 1852 when he first described the type species, and is derived from the Greek word ρομβος “rhombus” = a lozenge, i.e., a diamond-shaped article or marking. [...] It was obvious from the photograph that this was a juvenile western diamond-backed rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). The characteristic diamond-shaped dorsal blotches (at least at mid-body) and the black and white banded “coon” tail, are distinctive for the it and the eastern species (Crotalus adamanteus), and the latter is not found in Texas. I wrote Katie back, noting how unusual it is for snakes to show up at this time of year, especially after several days of record-low temperatures, and mentioned that I’d like to drop by to analyze things in her yard that might explain why this happened. [...] The Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox, Baird & Girard, 1853) is an animal (kingdom Animalia) with a hollow, dorsal nerve cord (phylum Chordata), a backbone (subphylum Vertebrata), and jaws (infraorder Gnathostomata). It is a descendent of four-footed ancestors (superclass Tetrapoda), has a terrestrially-adapted egg (an Amniote), breathes air and is ectothermic, i.e., cold-blooded (class Reptilia). It has a scaly skin (order Squamata), is without legs, eyelids or external ears (suborder Serpentes), possesses relatively long, hinged, hollow fangs to inject venom (family Viperidae), a heat-sensing pit organ between the eye and nostril (subfamily Crotalinae), and a rattle on the end of its tail (genus Crotalus). [...] |
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