Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need information that can be cited and backedup with real numbers please

1) What is the average weight of a wild WDB
2) What is the average amount of ANIMALS taken in the sweetwater roundup

Im doing a speech for my college public speaking class, this is my topic, to eduacate the masses on the Atrocities happening but I need real numbers that i can site, so it doesnt look like im making this up

Thanx alot in advance to any help given

Well, I have some info for you but it's not as cut and dry as you probably hope. In reference to your first question. Crotalus atrox has fairly extreme geographic variation in body size (and mass). So, it depends on the population. In general, the eastern snakes (which are those captured for round-ups) are far larger (and heavier) than snakes from, say, Arizona. Here are some numbers for you to use, taken from a paper in which C. atrox from Oklahoma round-ups were studied. Males average around 1250 grams, and females average around 500 grams. This is a rough estimate! Largest males were just above 2000 g and largest females were just under 1500 grams.

The second question has a better answer. The take from the Sweetwater round-up varies from year to year, but sources as of 1992 said it's from 5000 to 8000 C. atrox each year.

Mass data from:
Fitch. H.S. and Pisani, G.R. 1993. Life history traits of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) studied from roundup samples in Oklahoma. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Kansas 156:1-24.