The thumbnail to its right shows the unsheathed fang next to a measuring bar with 1/8th inch (3.2 mm) graduations. From that image we can safely conclude the fangs of this specimen would be able to penetrate to about 5/8th inch (16 mm) or more into the flesh of its prey or that of a perceived threat… [...]
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This 17-inch-long, juvenile Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake was observed by a sharp-eyed night shift supervisor at a commercial facility in San Antonio. The supervisor, a woman, was walking down a well-lighted hallway–at midnight–when she saw what she thought was a snake’s head peering out from under the locked doorway to an office. The office’s occupant, who worked the 9-5 shift, was not in at the time. [...] 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? [...] 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. [...] 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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