Can you spot the eastern diamondback rattlesnake? A hint gives it away
Coastal Ecology Lab officials were tracking tortoises at a field site when they came upon a well-hidden eastern diamondback rattlesnake.
Officials from the Coastal Ecology Lab in Georgia were tracking tortoises at one of their field sites when they came upon an eastern diamondback rattlesnake basking about 30 feet from the burrow of one of the tortoises they track.
“Sometimes when we are scoping a burrow to determine whether a tortoise is inside, we may find a rattlesnake instead or in addition to a gopher tortoise!” the lab stated in its Facebook post. “The tortoises do not seem to mind them and will share the burrow. Diamondback rattlesnakes are one of the over 350 species that call gopher tortoise burrows home.”
This one wasn’t in the burrow, of course, but it was well camouflaged, as you can see in the first photo the lab posted. Can you spot it?
The snake becomes clearer with the next two photos, especially with a hint from a commenter giving it away: Look for the sunglasses.
“I would have stepped on him!” one commenter wrote on the Facebook post.
“Man, do they hide well!” another wrote.
“Looked like a pair of sunglasses at first,” said another.
Indeed it did.
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The lab was asked by one commenter if the rattlesnake was polite enough to rattle a warning, to which the lab replied, “They actually rarely rattle, much less strike! Their camouflage works so effectively they do not escalate to more overt defensive behaviors until they know they have been spotted. Frequently, they don’t rattle or react unless we are catching them, which we only do if we need to collect data. Otherwise, we all go in peace in our separate ways!”
Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute states that the eastern diamondback rattlesnakes are North America’s longest and heaviest venomous snake, averaging 3- to 6-feet long and 10 pounds. They are endemic to the southeastern U.S. and are found in the pinelands of Florida, the coastal plains of North Carolina and southern Mississippi through eastern Louisiana.
Photos courtesy of the Coastal Ecology Lab.