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Unidentified rattlesnake
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by RMax304823 on October 27, 2001
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Unidentified rattlesnake
Posted by Robert J. Maxwell (RMax304823@yahoo.com) on Sat, Oct 20, 01 at 3:19
This one has been puzzling me for many years. I was swimming in Naciemento Reservoir in Marin County, CA, about 12 miles north of the city and, at the time, was really into herpetology as only a teenager could be, a member of The Herpetologist's League and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. I'd already written a biological key for the Newark (NJ) Museum. I only bring this up to emphasize that I knew something about snakes at that time, the mid-50s. While poking around in a leisurely search for reptiles or amphibians I turned over a medium-sized dry rotting log and there was a rattlesnake under it, which immediately began buzzing and coiling into a strike position. It was small, only, I would estimate, a bit more than 2 feet long, reddish brown above with darker indistinct blotches whose exact pattern I can no longer recall. It was too big to be juvenal and its rattle was small but had several rings. There were no marked black/white rings on its tail. What struck me immediately and has remained with me is one particular feature: it had plates on its crown. I realize that Marin County is way outside the range of the nearest pygmy rattlesnake, the Western Massasauga, and I can't reconcile the presence of that particular snake with any of the distribution maps I've looked at. I don't know that this post calls for a comment, let alone a sensible answer (aside from the obvious one that I misidentified its scalation), but this is the first chance I've had to get that observation somewhere in the archives.
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RE: Unidentified rattlesnake
Posted by: ian busby (ian.busby1@firstunion.com) on Mon, Oct 22, 01 at 15:07
I would submit your question to www.venomousreptiles.org. Your much more likely to get responces even though the club is headquartered in the SE USA
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RE: Unidentified rattlesnake
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Anonymous post on October 31, 2001
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hmmmm, I have no idea because I'm not that familiar with western rattlesnakes, but are C. ruber native to that area? -- I can also add that I remember a couple of snakes from my childhood that I have yet to identify, or even come close to identifying. Perhaps it is faulty memory on my part, perhaps not....
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