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My First Rattle Snake! It finally happened, I saw a
rattlesnake while mountain biking in Sycamore Canyon Park this afternoon!!!
I am not a snake expert but according to the description and habitat location
described on Desert USA and this page on yahoo, it really looks like a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox), mainly because of the black and white bands in the tail.
Quote:
The Western Diamondback, which can exceed seven feet in length, is the king of our twenty odd species and sub-species of Southwestern desert rattlers, not only in terms of size, but also in terms of its fearsome reputation.
Malevolently handsome, its basic color ranges from brown to gray to pinkish, depending on the shade of its habitat. Its back is lined with dark diamond-shaped blotches outlined by lighter-colored scales. Its head is distinguished by two dark stripes, one on each side of its face, which run diagonally, like Zorro's mask, from its eyes back to its jaws. Its tail is circled by several alternating black and white bands, like the pattern of a raccoon's tail. Its patterns are most distinctive when the snake is young and are more faded, blurred and camouflaged when it is older.
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It was slowly crossing the trail, I had the time to take a picture of a half snake:-) If you look carefully you can see the rattle at the extremity of the tail. It is kind of yellow transparent. The snake was about 3 or 4 foot long. I was about 30ft away, I did not want to get any closer! According to DesertUSA, if you are bitten, unless you receive proper medical attention and antipoison, the death rate ranges from 15 to 25%. 25% of bytes are "dry" (no poison injected by the snake), I don't know if they took that into account in their stats... Anyways, the US mortality rate is pretty low, about 8000 people bitten each year, and "only" 15 die of it...
To make the experience complete, I wish it had rattled a little. Stupid snake, I don't even scare you? You don't feel like you need to rattle? I feel so humiliated!
To hear it, go there: http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/mar/stories/rattlesin.html.
God, that sounds good!
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