Behind the Scenes: Diamondback Rattlesnake

Although many of us know that the new B&M HyperCoaster Diamondback is set for release in 2009, many of us don't know what is a Diamondback Rattlesnake. KI Portal takes an exclusive behind the scenes look at the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.
The Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, or Crotalus atrox, a member of the family Viperidae, the subfamily Crotalinae, and the genus Crotalus, has such a hold on the human psyche that it has been a symbol of the American Southwest from prehistoric into historic times. It figures in ancient mythology, ceramics and rock art and in modern story and media. The Western Diamondback, which can exceed seven feet in length, is the king of our twenty odd species and sub-species of Southwestern desert rattlers, not only in terms of size, but also in terms of its fearsome reputation.

Malevolently handsome, its basic color ranges from brown to gray to pinkish, depending on the shade of its habitat. Its back is lined with dark diamond-shaped blotches outlined by lighter-colored scales. Its head is distinguished by two dark stripes, one on each side of its face, which run diagonally, like Zorro’s mask, from its eyes back to its jaws. Its tail is circled by several alternating black and white bands, like the pattern of a raccoon’s tail. Its patterns are most distinctive when the snake is young and are more faded, blurred and camouflaged when it is older.

Like its brethren – a clan of some 100 species of poisonous snakes generally called "pit vipers" – the Western Diamondback comes equipped with a spade-shaped head, a fiendish fang and venom system, elliptical pupils and heat-sensing facial pits. It has reserve fangs to replace any which break off in a victim. The venom causes extensive tissue damage, bleeding and swelling in humans. The pits, in effect, infrared detectors, guide the snake swiftly and surely to warm blooded prey such as rodents, even in the total darkness of the animals’ burrows. Its rattles – a distinguishing feature it shares only with other rattlesnakes – grows segment by segment, each rattle the keratin remnant of a shed skin. It can add two or three rattles each year, with each molt, although it may also break off some of its rattles in the course of a year.

Unlike the Black Tailed Rattler, which tends to be lethargic, or the Rock Rattler, which tends to be excitable but non-aggressive, the Western Diamondback will coil, rattle fearsomely, and stand its ground when threatened. It bites hundreds of people a year, more than any other venomous snake in the United States. It hunts from late evening to early morning, crawling either sinuously like other snakes or rectilinearly like a caterpillar.