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I am going to give details of the area to assist in identifying this snake. This is not a herping hot spot anyway.

Location: Mt Graham in Southeast Arizona. Elevation 9300FT.

I found this guy crossing the road at about 1pm on July 3rd. It was mostly coudy and about 60 degrees. When I approached he immediately started buzzing. But he did not get aggressive or defensive. No coiling up or striking. He just took off. This was the fastest rattlesnake I have ever seen. He was not heavy bodied like other rattlesnakes. This snake was an olive smoke gray color...solid all over. I don't know if this will be visible in the pic, but he had a very light purple shade down the center of the back.

After looking at (and reading) my field guides the best description I found (in writting) was the Twin Spotted Rattlesnake. However this snake had no markings, no spots, and this includes the tail. Anyone have any ideas?

Picture looks terrible on here. Please see if you can enlarge. If needed let me know and I can email you a clear pic.

I am guessing a Crotalus viridis cerebus ( Arizona Black Rattlesnake) from the pic. They can change colors a bit.
Or maybe a melanistic Tiger..
Unfortunately, I'd need a better pic to nail the ID.

Matthew

I though of that. I do not know anything about Rattlesnake color or pattern variations. I wish I would have captured it, but we were drinking and three hours away from medical services.

Thank God you made the right choice.. Alcohol & rattlers DON'T MIX! Kudos on common sense!

Matthew

I'll guess it's a twin spotted like you said.

Here's an enlargement.

You might be right about the ID. I have no idea what it is but I'm going to contact a couple of guys from AZ that might have a better idea. Good thing you were able to get at least one photo of him.
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Very cool find indeed. I am not sure how common it is in this species but it happens in many other crote species. Glad you got a photo of it for confirmation.
If you have a hi res shot can you email me at droconnor82@hotmail.com

Thank You everyone for your input. I will be visiting this area again in the fall. If we see another snake like this one we will attempt to secure it for positive ID. A Patternless Twin Spotted seems to be the most likely candidate. Tahnks again!

I'll go with Twin Spot too, now that I got a clearer look at it, the head doesn't match my earlier 2 id guesses.. Too narrow for a Black for sure!

Matthew

brendan hit it right on the nail, patternless twin spot, excellent find, congrats!

Do you have a closer shot? I was up there two weeks before that hiking. The twins are sometimes faded. Patternless specimens have been found in almost all the Rattle snake species so far. Thanks for posting it.