Northwestern Neotropical Rattlesnake
Name: Northwestern Neotropical Rattlesnake
Scientific name: Crotalus darussus culminatus
Range: They live from southern Canada to Argentina
Habitat: swamps and marshy fields
Status: endangered, very rare
Diet in the wild: Birds and small mammals.  A few also eat amphibians and reptiles.  They destroy rodents and other animals that are harmful to crops.
Diet in the zoo: mostly insects and small rodents.  Occationally they will be fed a small bird.
Location in the zoo:Second wing of the Herpetaruim.
 
Physical description: 
  • Body length 61-91 cm long (24-36 inches) 
  • Weight 15-25 lbs
  • Color females are sandy colored with dark spots along their body.  Males are a mustard color with green spots.
  • Rattler color coincides with color of skin.
  • Females have young when they are three years old.  They then give birth every two to three years.

 
 
General information:
The rattlesnakes are classed among the pit vipers.  There are about 30 species of rattlesnakes classed among the pit vipers.  By far the greatest numbers of rattlesnakes live in the dry region of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.  One species is found over a large part of South America.  Only one kind of rattlesnake lives in almost the whole of the northern United States west of the Mississippi Valley.  A few other kinds appear in the valley east of it.

 
 
Special anatomical, physiological
or behavioral adaptations:

Heat receptors in the lips help it locate its prey of birds and small mammals.  It is easy to recognize a rattlesnake by its rattle, which is a set of horny pieces loosely joined together.  It makes a buzzing sound when the snake shakes it.

 

 
 
Northwestern Neotropical Rattlesnake at the Fort Worth Zoo.
      

 
 
 
Source Materials and Related Links:

 
 
Page author:DeYon Francis

Send E-mail to DeYon0405@aol.com

or to mac@whozoo.org

 

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