Too bad you couldn't get a "closeup" photo! I liked the last one best. However, I would need one of them "anti-shake" lenses just to be near that critter. Good photos!
It's a canebrake or timber rattler depends on where you're from. We have diamondbacks but haven't seen one yet.
Amazing technology those digital cameras the close up was about 2 foot away. Notice it isn't coiled up so striking distance is going to be very short. Never rattled or got upset even when I tailed it to the woods.
Great specimen though good color size was a bit small can't make a real determination on how old it was rattles don't always equate to age.
You should feed that poor skinny bugger something . . . ;-)
IMHO, he's a canebrake, the timber rattlers I've seen (between 1,600 and 3,000 ASL in western MD and eastern WV) have all had yellowish to greenish pigmentation.
A few of the sources I found said they were the same species, others maintain they differ. . . I did a quick search and found this:
Scientifically they are both the same species Crotalus horridus.
The last one I caught was tan and light brown. Wife saw a diamondback they are a bit thicker in the middle section.
According to what I've read the timber/cane are less aggressive and I tend to agree both snakes I've handled have been really cooperative. Course I always keep an eye on the head at all times.
I am just fascinated by them and the various color combinations can vary within our 12,000 acre hunting lease. I can only imagine what other colors can be chosen by nature. I need to get my own digital camera as the one I used is the wifes lol.
I'd hate to see a bigun' Thank god we don't have them here or I would be packin a 12 bore up the hills with me. I have to say I would eat it after I'd dispatched it tho' I ate snake in the far east, yummy!
Daveosok,
I'm in Douglasville.it's west of atlanta but i work down town atlanta and hunt in alabama,I have land i can hunt in Jefferson county and glasscock county it is close to sandersville if i'm not mistaken