The Survival of the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

4 Snakes Sake series

My new journey here in the US learning more about this fascinating pit viper. This is a great documentary about the Crotalus adamanteus.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Squamata

Suborder: Serpentes

Family: Viperidae

Genus: Crotalus

Species: C. adamanteus

From NatGeo’s documentary, King Rattler

Please take the time and watch this very informative documentary about the Easter Diamondback Rattlesnake. Hopefully you will come to love this beautiful creature as much as I do. I left Namibia and her beautiful snakes behind to find beautiful ones here in the US. The more I learn, the more I realize how important it is to raise awareness and educate why they are so crucial to nature!

Footage and transcript copyright NGT, Inc.

“Humans keep upping the anti on the snake’s future and dangers are every where. In the summer, hot highways become killing gauntlets or worse, burning barriers cutting the snakes off from its habitat. Little more than 2% of the rattler’s ancient territory remains, humanity’s pattern of destruction, the precious long leaf pine lands replaced by regiments of future 2x4’s, ploughed over by agriculture, slashed apart by highways, and fragmented into withering islands, the left overs of development. There may not be enough land left to the snake to sustain it, let alone provide a future.

It may be that it’s already too late for the Eastern Diamondback. While well adapted to the trials of nature, the torments of humans are pushing the rattler to its limit. Dr Means fears that before we fully understand the snake’s roll in the environment, it may be gone. But even he acknowledges that the snakes have found surprising ways to survive. “The Eastern Diamondback is likely to be an endangered species very soon. It has a special roll in nature and it won’t take much for it to be lost forever. The snake plays an essential roll in nature both as predator and prey.”

The images posted are from a beautiful Eastern Diamondback on exhibit at Zoo Atlanta