Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

Facts about Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. "Scientific name for Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is Crotalus adamanteus". Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is a Crotalus type of poisonous snake that comes from the Viperidae family. The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes are largely found in the southeastern parts the United States, and they are the heaviest poisonous snake in the country and the biggest rattlesnake in their family. The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is featured notably in the American Revolution, particularly as the representation of what many believe to be the primary flag of the United States of America, called the Gadsden flag. The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes live in highland arid pine forest, palmetto and pine Flatwoods, coastal sea hammocks and sand hills, Longleaf pine or turkey oak homes. In several areas, they appear to use burrows created by gopher tortoises and gophers during the winter and the summer seasons.

Features of Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is the biggest rattlesnake variety and it is the heaviest recognized specimen that attains a maximum body length of 7 7/8 feet (2.3 meters), with a body mass of 34 pounds (15.4 kg).

The scalation in Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake includes 25 to 31 chains of dorsal scales at the middle part of their body. Usually, male snakes have 165 to 176 ventral scales, whereas the female ones will have 170 to 187 ventral scales. There are 27 to 33 subcaudal scales in males and the female snakes will have 20 to 26 subcaudal scales.

The rostral scale on the head of the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is higher than its breadth and touches two intranasal scales. The snake has 10 to 21 scales in the intranasal-prefrontal area and 5 to 11 intersupraocular scales. Usually, they have two Loreal scales between the postnasal and preschoolers. There are 12 to 17 supralabial scales, the primary of which is in wide contact with the prenasal, and 15 to 21 sublabial scales.

The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake has a brow-yellow, brown, olive ground color or brown-gray color body, which is overlaid with a sequence of 24 to 35 dark brown to black color diamond-shaped blotches, with somewhat lighter centers. Each of these diamond-shaped marks is outlined with a line of cream or yellow color scales. Posteriorly, the diamond-shaped blotches turn out to be more like cross bands and are trailed by 5 to 10 bands around their tail.

The belly of the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is yellow or cream in color, with dim, dark mottling down the sides. The head of the snake has a dark postocular line that widens from behind their eye backwards and downwards to their lip. The back of the line contacts the angle of their mouth. Posteriorly and anteriorly, the postocular line is bordered by different white or yellow color lines.

Diet of Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake snakes forage vigorously or lie in trap for small creatures, and feed on rice rats and rabbits. They also feed on birds.

Behavior of Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake habitually shelters by burrowing the gopher and tortoise holes, coming out in the early morning or daylight to bask. Similar to most rattlesnakes, this is a terrestrial snake variety and it is not expert at climbing. However, the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes use to wait in trees and bushes, apparently looking for prey. Even big specimens have been spotted as tall as 10 meters from the earth. These snakes are recognized to be outstanding swimmers, too.

Reproduction of Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is an ovoviviparous snake variety. The gestation period lasts for six or seven months and the female snake offers birth to young ones between July and early October that ranges from 7 to 21 at a time. The newborn snakes will come out with the body length between 12 inches (30 cm) and 14 inches (35 cm) and are similar in look to the adults. However, the juvenile Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes live with their mother for some hours only earlier than they start out on their own to pursue and discover cover, thus the death rate is extremely high.

The average lifespan of the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake ranges from 10 years to 20 years.