I was moving along quite nicely this morning when I turned over a log. Yup, rattlesnake !!! But a little one, only 17" long. It had 5 rattles and they were the tiniest that I have ever seen. Hardly ΒΌ" long, but it was sure shaking it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0958.JPG)
Tiny.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0951.JPG)
The snake had apparently just eaten, because the body part was very oversize.
is it gonna eat again?
Is that a pygmy rattler?
Quote from: chain on July 09, 2010, 08:26:15 PMIs that a pygmy rattler?
Chain, Your question made me investigate. I had just supposed it to be a baby timber rattler. After doing some searching, I am now convinced that it was a pygmy rattler. Everything fits; the size, color, rattler size. What I thought to be a baby, probably was an adult snake. That explains why it had 5 rattles.
I'm glad that you asked. :)
You're very welcome! I've seen a couple of them but wasn't sure your part of Mississippi was in the pygmy's range, but it was. The range comes clear up in part of the ozarks in Missouri. So many years ago as a Boy Scout we were hiking over a mountain and saw a pygmy sunning on a large flat rock.
I've seen references to Pygmy Rattlers and have heard about "Ground Rattlers" all of my life.
Seems like every unidentified snake was a ground rattler. I've seen those snakes, killed them, looked at them, and never could see anything that would identify them as poisonous.
What I read last night said that Pygmy Rattlers are sometimes referred to as Ground Rattlers. Well, there was no mistaking that the one yesterday was the real deal. It was a "first" for me. Thankfully I had my camera.
Glad to see it cooperated while you took its picture!!!!!!!!! Tonto.
Here's what we saw hiking in California last summer. At a coastal state park just south of Monterey. When we were walking there was a man with two kids and the kids were just bushwhacking their way parallel to their dad but off the trail like where these guys were. Don't know what kind they are but they were sure rattling away.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21495/2822/snake1.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21495/2822/snake2.jpg)