Rattlesnakes!

My first Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus). I've been looking forward to this for a long time. I got the whole rattle threat display and everything. You can hear it on the video. It was great! It was as fat around as the thickest part of my forearm (not exactly popeye, but still...). Below is the diamondback's little cousin, the Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius barbouri). These heavily persecuted species elicit fear in many people, which I think leads to the hatred. They certainly deserve a fearful type of respect, but they don't really want to bite people much more than people want to get bitten. The whole point of the rattle is to give us the option of avoiding conflict.