Range: Southeastern United States from Louisiana to North Carolina and South to Florida.
Habitat: Found in oak and pine lowlands with saw palmetto thickets and gopher tortoise burrows.
Description: This is the largest venomous snake native to North America and may attain lengths up to 8 feet long. Color pattern is a brown background color with diamond markings along its back which are a cream color. Diamond markings fade to bands towards the tail. The tail is usually a darker brown color. A heat sensitive pit is located between the nostril and the eye on each side of the head. Scales are keeled and feel rough.
Adaptations/Habitat: Rattlesnakes are best known for the rattle located at the tip of their tail, which they use to scare off potential predators or large animals that may step on them, such as humans and cattle. Rattlesnakes, as well as other pit vipers, have heat sensitive facial pits. These heat sensitive pits help rattlesnakes locate their prey in complete darkness. Eastern diamondback rattlesnake venom is very potent and hemotoxic. It is specific towards fast and agile mammal species, such as rabbits, which have high metabolic rates. This species of rattlesnake is the most dangerous venomous snake in North America.
Breeding/Growth: Rattlesnakes are viviparous and give birth to 7-12 live young. Females will guard their newborn until their first shed before they set off on their own.
Diet: Feeds primarily on warm blooded prey, such as rodents, other small mammals and birds. Rattlesnakes play a vital role in pest control.
Exhibit: Tropical Aviary Hallway
Notes: Populations have been impacted considerably by hunting, habitat destruction due to development. Its rapid disappearance is due, in part, to suburban housing, agricultural development, and rattlesnake round-ups. Annual rattlesnake round-ups are fair like events based on the exploitation of thousands of rattlesnakes for use as food, skins and entertainment. Collecting rattlesnakes for these round-ups often involved the use of gasoline or any other noxious substance, which was poured into burrows. These burrows, often gopher tortoise burrows, were used by rattlesnakes as well as other animals and snakes such as indigo snakes and the gopher tortoise. The use of gasoline is now outlawed, but rattlesnake round-ups still occur to the detriment of this species and other rattlesnakes.
