Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Someone told me that male rattlesnakes are bigger than the females as adults. Is this true? thanks
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The Crawl Space

For the most part, yes, males are larger, however, as in all things in nature, there are exceptions; this is just a general rule of thumb.

>>Someone told me that male rattlesnakes are bigger than the females as adults. Is this true? thanks
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>>The Crawl Space
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I remember reading an article or research project once that was looking into the fact that males and females would actually be the same size, but females put all their energy into breeding during the season that they "quit" growing during that time. So, if restricted from breeding they would grow to similar sizes as males. Just an add on to the "general rule of thumb" thing.

Most, but not all, rattlesnake species demonstrate sexual size dimorphism, with males typically being larger than females.

That's interesting that Crotalus species tend to favor larger males than females. In most snake species, it's the exact other way around. I've noticed this trend though with Crotalus, but it seems to depend on species. For example, I've personally seen more large female C. atrox than males. However, C. adamanteus is the other way around. According to the literature (since I'm not terribly well versed in rattlesnake data), does it tend to depend on species, or is it an across the board thing that males are larger?
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

It depends on the species.

Strange observation on the C. atrox. In my experience, having worked with quite a few field collected atrox, males were in almost all instances substantially larger than females; perhaps there are some isolated populations who show otherwise? Always something to learn.

>>It depends on the species.
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL