![\"A](\"https:\/\/twistedsifter.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load-0.7\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" "\\"Experts"){kind=spacer}
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Pexels<\/p>\n
If you live in North America, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re familiar with rattlesnakes.<\/p>\n
While the majority of rattlesnakes live in the southern states of the US and Mexico, they can be found as far north as Canada, and as far south as Argentina.<\/p>\n
And though fatalities are rare, it\u2019s not uncommon for people to be injured by rattlesnakes, with around 7,000-8,000 bites in the US alone every year and 5-10 of those resulting in fatalities.<\/p>\n
This is the reason for much of the fear of rattlesnakes, and the reason that removal services exist.<\/p>\n
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Pexels<\/p>\n
Recently, when responding to a call to remove a rattlesnake from someone\u2019s yard in Scottsdale, Arizona, the team at Rattlesnake Solutions were in for a bit of a surprise.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because while the creature they turned up to rescue was indeed a rattlesnake, it looked quite different to what they would normally expect.<\/p>\n
In a Facebook post<\/a> showing their discovery, the team explained that while this was a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, looks could certainly be deceiving:<\/p>\n \u201cIn the many thousands of Diamondbacks we\u2019ve seen over the years, this is a first. The area it was in rules out hybridization possibilities with most species, not that there\u2019s anything morphologically that indicates that. Of all the possibilities, it\u2019s likely it\u2019s just a funky-looking diamondback.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Unlike the regular Western Diamondback patterning (left on the image below), which has \u2013 as you might guess from the name \u2013 diamond shaped patches, this snake (right) looked altogether different.<\/p>\n Bryan Hughes\/Rattlesnake Solutions<\/p>\n Instead of diamonds, this rattlesnake\u2019s scales displayed more of a heart or leopard shaped pattern.<\/p>\n Despite speculation, the herpetological experts suggested that this was likely just a genetic mutation, rather than evidence of breeding between different species of snake.<\/p>\n Given the rattlesnakes\u2019 usual pattern offers them an advantage in terms of blending into grasslands and plains, limiting their visibility to both predators and prey, pattern mutations can sometimes present a problem.<\/p>\n However, this rattlesnake\u2019s coloring and pattern definitions \u2013 while certainly unusual \u2013 likely aren\u2019t going to pose it any real problems after its re-release in a safe, wild area.<\/p>\n Rather, it\u2019s just a happy accident that rather enhances its look.<\/p>\n If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read a story that reveals Earth\u2019s priciest precious metal isn\u2019t gold or platinum and costs over $10,000 an ounce!<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\tCategories: ANIMALS<\/a>\t\t\n
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Tags: \u00b7 american snakes<\/a>, animals<\/a>, biodiversity<\/a>, dangerous animals<\/a>, diamond back rattlesnake<\/a>, herpetology<\/a>, North America<\/a>, rattlesnake<\/a>, reptiles<\/a>, science<\/a>, single topic<\/a>, snake<\/a>, snake removal<\/a>, top<\/a>, venomous snakes<\/a>, wildlife<\/a>\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pexels If you live in North America, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re familiar with rattlesnakes. While the majority…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[83072,3425,18844,10805,83073,83074,587,15087,3185,159,21936,27891,83075,1399,67,132,68,51045,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-138760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-american-snakes","9":"tag-animals","10":"tag-biodiversity","11":"tag-dangerous-animals","12":"tag-diamond-back-rattlesnake","13":"tag-herpetology","14":"tag-north-america","15":"tag-rattlesnake","16":"tag-reptiles","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-single-topic","19":"tag-snake","20":"tag-snake-removal","21":"tag-top","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-venomous-snakes","26":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115013934741845734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}