Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Good night last night, cruised for about 2 hours before the moon was set to rise. The surprise of the evening was the lack of mojave rattlesnakes, which usually account for at least half of our finds, but out of eight snakes last night, only one mojave! Lots of gophers, mostly dead, and the best parts of the trip were the longnose and the first live gloosy and southern pacific rattler of the year. So Pac was a baby, just a button, and a full belly. Started buzzing like a bee. Glossy was a thick female, I don't know if they would be gravid yet, but I've never seen a glossy this fat, and she was just a little over 2 feet long. Started striking a little too while we were trying to measure her. I ran right past the mojave due to a dim light, I swear I must have nearly stepped on it. When walking back to my car I suddenly heard it rattle, right where I swear I walked when looking for it. Blended in with the road perfectly.

Here is the mojave I nearly stepped on:

And the So Pac:

And finally the fat glossy:

Looks like you were crusing the Antelope Valley, where abouts where you at. Dont need localities, but I'm interested in the overlapping distribution of the Helleri and Mohave. How far into the desert have you seen the Western rattlers, and how far inland have you witnessed the Mohave?

Oops, sorry, yes the Anelope Valley, Lancasterish. The mojave and helleri don't overlap much, but they do a little. I have only found one helleri in the more deserty area, but I've heard of many others finding them there too. Most of mine are found on a road which leads to the hills into helleri habitat right near Lake Eliz. This becomes the angeles forest, so plenty of helleris there. A few make their way into the nearby desert, but this one was found up on the hill where I have only seen helleris, no mojaves. Further down the hill there are mojaves and a few helleris, and down in the desert many mojaves and as I said I've seen one helleri, took me a while to put my jaw back up after I found that one! So, we hunt desert roads, finding tons of mojaves usually, and then take the side road to helleri country. Makes for a good evening of hunting.

Someone last year posted finding a cerastes and a helleri within 200 ft of each other, that one I was surprised at. That was somewhere further south, I don't recall where exactly.

Cool. Thanks for the reply. Somewhere i heard that the two rattlers interbreed. Maybe someday you'll come across one of those.

That is supposed to be here, I know someone with a snake showing characteristics of both which he thinks may be a hybrid, but I would say it is rare. With all the rain this year, though, I would expect to see more helleris down in the desert and therefore there may be a surge in inbreeding, which is probably due to lack of helleris in the desert near the hills and an excess of mojaves to breed with.

Just my theories.