Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I picked up this animal recently from some people who weren't capable of taking care of it, nor did they know anything about it. All they told me was that it was given to them. No info at all. Can anybody identify it? Thanks!

another pic....

whatcha think?

Interesting looking snake you have there Greg...

Honestly, I can ID MOST rattlesnakes I see in about a second, but this animal has me a bit stumped. Farily obvious we can rule out atrox here...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that animal has definite scutulatus influence...For poop and giggles, I'm going to say it's a lutosus x scutulatus hybrid.

I could be WAY off, but that animal just doesn't look to be a pure anything....

Where are you located? Where was this animal found? I suppose I should reserve my guess until I at least know that! LOL

-Kris

I am located in the bay area of California. Only Norpacs are found in the regions here, but I do not think this to be a Norpac. But this animal could have realistically come from anywhere. Thanks all the help with this! It's appreciated!

Yes, I'd have to agree that this animal certainly isn't a pure C.o.oreganus. Possibly a hybrid or integrade...

I definitely see some C. s. scutulatus influence...As far as lutosus, after looking at this animal a second time I'd have to say no to lutosus....

Now, I'm leaning oreganus x scutulatus....possibly helleri x scutulatus.

Regardless, it's a cool looking animal and looks healthy. I'm not usually one for hybrids or integrades, but this animal does look interesting for sure.

-Kris

Looks like a Mojave to me...
Drew.

I think its a mojave rattlesnake.
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Jeff Davis
1.0 Norm Royal Python(Rescue)
1.0 Albino Ball Python (high contrast)
2.0 Shi Tzus
1.0 Pug
0.1 Lovely Wife

they look very different from coastals, always throws people off.

Thanks Rich....

Those oreganus look VERY different than the ones I grew up with in the Bay Area...Most of the ones I saw up there had the black tops on their heads, and that was one of the things that was throwin' me off.

Also, the pattern just looked scutulatus to me (particularly the midsection).

Very different than any oreganus I've seen....

Isn't that an integrade zone between o.oreganus and o.helleri?

-Kris

Hey Kris,
Naw, they are pure oreganus. They just have a different look from living in a high desert habitat. Many used to think they were lutosus prior to all the DNA work by Douglas et. al.

If you think these are weird, you ought to seee some of the speckled oreganus that pop up along the Eastern Sierra. There are some really crazy looking ones. Unfortunately I haven't ever had the opportunity to photo any of those yet. Check out some of the pics in Cal Photos sometime. There are a lot of near variations there.
Rich

Looking at the head I still think it's a hybrid of some sort likely with scutulalatus or even atrox as one of the parents...thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

I want to thank all of you for responding and helping me out with this. It is very much appreciated. I recently went up to Sonora to do a rattlesnake removal, and the oreganus I picked up from there looks completely different. I will post pics of it soon. But again, thanks to all for contributing to this.

This screams Mojave rattlesnake ( Scutulatus ).
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Jeff Davis
1.0 Norm Royal Python(Rescue)
1.0 Albino Ball Python (high contrast)
2.0 Shi Tzus
1.0 Pug
0.1 Lovely Wife

http://fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4564