Fieldherper.com » Crotalus molossus

Baby Blacktail

Bryan — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:26:57 +0000

Here’s the smallest Blacktailed Rattlesnake I’ve ever seen … I see plenty of these guys, so I’m not quite sure why I never see babies. Cute little guy.

C-m-molossus-082910

The Least Expected Rattlesnake Ever

Bryan — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:19:42 +0000

I was out cruising for snakes with my brother in August of 2010 in the sandy flats West of Phoenix and found something I never expected to. Where we were was the land of mojaves, sidewinders, and other flat-land loving sand surfers … quite far from the nearest rocky foothills where speckled rattlesnakes and blacktailed rattlesnakes can be found. Regardless, we found one! Even though it is plainly a C. molossus I was staring at, it was a situation where my brain wouldn’t let me believe it.

He’s missing the usual black eyescale that these guys have, and is a pretty standard desert-phase coloration. He was found crossing the road near a canal, so the best I can figure is that he was crawling between rock piles somewhere off on the horizon and got “stuck” against the uncrossable line, and had followed it here.

Interestingly enough, it’s not the first time I’d found a ‘mountains only’ kind of snake in this spot. The lyresnake (another snake that lives in the hills and mountains) in my collection was found less than a quarter mile from this spot. Strangeness.

Baby Blacktail in the New River Mountains

Bryan — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:41:32 +0000

I found this young Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, in the New River mountains, in a pretty amazing spot that also is home to a good many Crotalus cerberus. This is also the youngest molossus I’ve ever seen in the wild. For only having two rattle segments, it was surprisingly large.

Crotalus molossus

Blacktail

… and you’ll have to endure my playing with HDR and the RAW format.

HDR version

A Black & Gold Mountain-Phase Blacktail

Bryan — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:06:28 +0000

Here’s a beautiful blacktailed rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, we found near the Mexican border with Arizona. The lichen-covered rocks made a really cool background.

molossus

Blacktail

Crotalus molossus

blacktail

molossus

A Night in the Superstition Mountains. Diamondback, Blacktails, and a Lyresnake

Bryan — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:00:47 +0000

My wife and I went on a quick trip to the Superstition Mountains and had a little success. We spent maybe the most productive hiking hour at Tortilla Flats eating hamburgers, which had to be done eventually. I’ve driven past the place more times than I can count, but I’ve always been on my way somewhere … so we stopped and it was well worth it. We got out in time to get to our location for a quick 30 minute hike before it was time to cruise, and it paid off immediately. Only a hundred yards into our hike we found a large Blacktail Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, cruising through a dry wash. It was my wife’s first blacktail, so we spent a lot of time with it and took a lot of pictures.

Crotalus molossus

blacktail rattlesnake

rattlesnake in the superstition moutains

black tail rattlesnake

molossus

We got back to our car just before dark and found this baby Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, right away. We didn’t take too much care with the pics on this one. Photographed and moved off the road.

Crotalus atrox

Then we found one of my favorite Colubrids, the Sonoran Lyresnake, Trimorphodon lambda. He had kind of a jacked up lower jaw as if he had swallowed part of it, but it looked to be healing, and it had some food in the belly, so it looks like he’ll be fine.

lyresnake

Trimorphodon lambda

popeye face

Sonoran Lyresnake in Arizona

On the way out, we found the last thing I expected, a Couch’s Spadefoot Toad. These are pretty common during the monsoons in the flats, but we were still well within the foothills when we found him. Weird.

Couch's Toad

A Typical Desert-Phase Blacktailed Rattlesnake from Arizona’s Superstition Mountains

Bryan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:50:58 +0000

This subadult Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, is the typical low-contrast brown seen in the Sonoran desertscrub areas of most of Arizona. In many areas this can take a green, orange, or even pinkish tint, but this one is pretty straight brown. Nonetheless, their pattern is one of the best looking, in my opinion, of the large-bodied rattlesnakes in Arizona, and their calm attitude is always welcome, except for being a bit difficult to photograph as they continually try to slide away without a fight.

blacktail rattlesnake in Arizona

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake from the Chiricuahua Mountains

Bryan — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:13:51 +0000

I found this Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus, while hiking along a streambed with my sister in August of 2009. It was the first she had seen, unless you count the unfortunate roadkill we found near Douglass the night before. I love this species; it completely made our afternoon to find this guy.

Crotalus molossus

Blacktail Rattlesnake

Crotalus molossus

Rattlesnake

A Young Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Bryan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:20:00 +0000

Here is the youngest, smallest Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) I have ever seen. It was found North of my home in Anthem, Arizona, in a place where I had previously not seen this species. It’s a great looking snake for this area.

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

… and an HDR for the hell of it.

HDR Blacktail

Bumble Bee Rattlesnake

Bryan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:27:20 +0000

This is by far one of the coolest snakes I’ve encountered. It’s a relatively large Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) in the mountain phase coloration. I most often find the less dramatically patterned desert phase molossus, and the differences between the two are obvious.

This particular rattlesnake shows some extremely high contrast between pattern elements, but had the calm, almost boid steadiness that I think is so cool about molossus. She didn’t rattle, even when I tried my best to get her to coil up for some photos. We let her continue her way to the rocky cliffside. About an hour later, we saw her again, coming back down the other way. It was just a good experience all around; one that sticks out in my mind of the hundreds of rattlesnakes I’ve seen in the last couple of years.

Of course, I took way more photographs than is necessary.

Crotalus molossus

Mountain Phase Black Tailed Rattlesnake

Blacktail Rattlesnake in Southern Arizona

Crotalus molossus

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Quality, Not Quantity (Part 6, Crotalus molossus)

Bryan — Sat, 02 May 2009 04:45:18 +0000

Continued from part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5

The ground temperatures eventually got higher and we decided to head back to try another wash that had more cover, where I’d previously seen many of our target species, the Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotaluss molossus). On the way, I jumped up and across a large boulder, setting off a short, barely audible “chk chk chk” in the darkness below which one of my herping partners was able to hear. I jumped off the rock and saw a loop of a large, desert phase Black-Tailed Rattlesnake disappearing into the depths. Finally our target species!

Crotalus molossus

This is my favorite species of the rattlesnakes that I have encountered in Arizona. They’re fairly common, but I never get tired of seeing them and the amazing variety of colors they seem to come in. This one was typical of the greenish, moderately contrasted animals I encounter in the Superstition mountains.

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Crotalus molossus

It was released back to the boulder where we found it, and we went back to hike the originally planned upon wash, to no result other than another group of perfectly camoflaged canyon treefrogs (Hyla arenicolor).

Hyla arenicolor

Quality, Not Quantity (Part 5, the Rattlesnakes)

Bryan — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:32:05 +0000

Continued from part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 …

After finding nothing else enjoying the morning sun, we started hiking an open, rocky wash I had spotted the day before as a possible place to find our target for the trip and my favorite of the rattlesnakes I’ve encountered so far, Crotalus molossus, the Black-Tailed Rattlesnake.

Within 50 yards from our point of entry, one of my herping partners saw a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) hiding in a rodent activity area under a large rock. Finally the first rattlesnake of the trip!

Crotalus atrox, in situ

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Continuing up the wash, well’camoflauged canyon treefrogs (Hyla arenicolor) were everywhere in various forms.

Hyla arenicolor

Canyon Treefrog

Canyon treefrogs display some amazing camouflage. There are 2 hiding in this crack doing their best rock impression.

Canyon Treefrogs

The stream still had some moving water, in which each puddle was home to a good number of these lowland leopard frogs (Rana yavapaiensis).

Rana yavapaiensis

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Bryan — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:15:38 +0000

This greenish Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) was actually the first I had been able to take pictures of. The previous year I looked all over for them and really wanted to see one. In late October I finally found one, but it was on a busy mountain road in a severe thunderstorm and it wasn’t safe to leave the car. I had to watch it crawl off the road in front of me. This picture was taken the next March, the first snake I found that year, and my first molossus.

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Bryan — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:31:06 +0000

On a slow night, we found a young Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) out and about. I got a few pictures, but the area wasn’t pose-friendly. Oh well … a nice snake regardless.

Crotalus molossus

Ugh (Except for the molossus)

Bryan — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:21:57 +0000

The weekend looked good for a trip up north to see what there is to see. We got a hotel room and headed out and were justified 10 minutes into our hike with a beautiful Black-Tailed Rattlesnake. It was my second in 2 weeks of my favorite rattlesnake, and Kelly’s first experience with one. I probably saved too many photos of it, but oh well. I had fun.

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake in Arizona

The sun set and we left, and found a really aggressive Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) a mile or so away. It was a big contrast from the usual slow, solid demeanor of the molossus.

Crotalus atrox

The rest of the trip wasn’t so much fun. There were a lot of misses … a ground snake, a whipsnake, a few other odds and ends, and maybe the largest Sonoran Gophersnake I’d ever seen. I misjudged the situation and lost him into a hole in the ground. The only other photos I took were of this Zebra-Tailed Lizard (Callisaurus draconiodes) the next morning on the way out.

Callisaurus draconiodes

Thats it! Oh ya, and here’s the newly-fixed email subscription thingie, in case its easier for you that way.

Superstitions Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (continued)

Bryan — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:46:09 +0000

Here are a few more pictures of the snake from Mother’s day.

Crotalus molossus from Arizona

Blacktailed Rattlesnake found Field Herping in Arizona

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake found outside Phoenix, Arizona

Superstition Mountains Black-Tailed Rattlesnake

Bryan — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:39:06 +0000

Here’s a Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) from a few ago. I found him after a long hike in the Superstition mountains, Northeast of Mesa, Arizona. He’d just finished swimming across a creek and was heading into the bushes at the base of a large tree when I found him. This is my favorite rattlesnake, and my first of the year.

Crotalus molossus

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake from the Superstition Mountains, Arizona

Blacktail Rattlesnake

Superstition Mountains, 08/07/07

Bryan — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:43:58 +0000

Took my friend Sonny on his first herping trip. We went to the Superstition Mountains, mostly because it’s close, and secondly because I haven’t had my fill of lyre snakes for the year.

The first snake we found was my second Coral snake (Micruroides euryxanthus) for the year.

We went further and stopped for some of the local inverts that Sonny hadn’t seen before, and eventually found a young California Kingsnake.

The last thing we found was a big Blacktail rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus)

This last one I took some creative time with and photoshopped in a starry night scene. Kinda fantasy-ish cheesy but whatever. Click on it for the full deal.