In the early monsoonal rains, Kelly and I went to Northern Arizona to try and find our first Hopi Rattlesnakes, Crotalus viridis, formally Crotalus viridis nuntius. The snake has actually recently been shown to be just regular Crotalus viridis, commonly called Prairie Rattlesnake, which is found elsewhere in North Eastern Arizona and throughout New Mexico.
Conditions were a little shakey as we got our hotel room for the night. It had been downpouring all day, and the streets were flooded with 6″ or more of water. The same was true for the habitat that we could see. Temperatures were also 10 degrees below where we wanted them, and it was only 4:30pm. Our hope was that our search area, 20 miles away, had not been hit as hard, and the ground would regain some heat in the final hours before dark.
Things went well, to say the least. In our first outing looking for Hopi Rattlesnakes, we found 5 of them. I did as I always do with something new to me; I took way too many pictures. I’ll split them up over the course of several posts. Here is the first.
Tags: crotalus viridis, crotalus viridis nuntius, crotalus viridis viridis, hopi rattlesnake, prarie rattlesnake
