I wonder if your snake-proof boots would stop a monster western diamondback rattlesnake of this size. Something tells me, no. This sucker would probably strike you in the thigh. I wonder how many wouldn’t wet their pants when running across this giant. Seems I recall that you can tell the age (in years?) of a rattle snake by counting the number of rattle segment on it’s tail — something related to how many times it sheds its skin. Any herpetologists out there? I count 14 segments. Very impressive, no doubt.
I hope the hunter had the common courtesy of mounting its hide and consuming its flesh after killing such a beautiful specimen.
Wow.
Maybe it's just perspective? Paralax from the camera lens?
Maybe it’s blown out of proportion due to the camera lens. Kind of like when you catch a fish and you want your picture taken. You hold the fish as far out in fron of you as possible to make it look bigger. I’ve heard that, anyway. Ahem.
Maybe he’s holding it that far out in front of becuase he’s not 100% convinved it’s dead…
Tags: Spectacular Photos
48 responses to Humongous Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
Quite obviously, this fat
bastardis an all too typical type. Instead of merely backing away and allowing the snake to go on its way, without hurting fatty there in the picture, what does he do? He ignorantly kills it.Rattlesnakes, and snakes in general, do a great service in keeping down the rodent population. I ask you, what would you rather have to deal with? Rats and their various diseases or that of a snake, which actually does a service in killing said rodents?
As for the myth of being able to tell a rattlesnakes age, by its beads, this is as I said, a myth. It isn’t uncommon for a wild rattlesnake to break off its rattle beads, thus you can not tell the age of a snake, by its rattle. A snake typically sheds more than once a year, as well. Thus with each shedding, a bead is added. This again, proves that the rattle beads, are an ineffective way of calculating age.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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This is a real badass rattler! He did us Texans a service taking that sucker out. There are way too many rattlers out there as it is. Good job!
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I cant believe that someone would want to kill a snake like this. This is a magnificant animal. The power and the strength… Its awe striking. Ignorance is what drives people to kill these animals. Either catch it and relocate it away from your house, or if your out in the woods, relocate yourself. Snakes dont accidentally come into your house and exterminate its occupants. People are only afraid because they dont understand, like I and another said ignorance kills these beautiful creatures.
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If you look very closely at the shadow that the snake is supposedly casting on the man, the portion of the stick just beyond the snakes body, and where the rattler is hanging in front of his leg… this is a bad example of some photoshop magic.
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You may be on to something. On examination it does look a little fishy. Maybe we should turn it over to the fake detective.
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Some of you people are too stupid to be alive and polluting the gene pool. You jump the guy’s case and you don’t even know the circumstances. Maybe it was killed in a heavily populated area. Maybe he just didn’t want it lurking around his campsite – I would kill this snake in a second if I saw it near my site. And there is nothing wrong with this picture – some of you have obviously never taken a flash photo before. And this certainly is not what you get in parallax view you moron. For god’s sake look stuff up before you open your head and let all the BBs out.
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We have plenty of rattlers down here, so to take one out (esp. one of that size) just makes for good pics and conversation. You (snake man and glc) tree hugging, peta loving liberal idiots need to pick ur fights and bullshit about your lame thoughts on a dolphin or panda bear loving website. Ya’ll don’t have a clue what it means to enjoy (while conserving) the hunting/fishing life, especially in Texas. Go NRA.
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Yea! You ignorant little animal rescuers, come home from where ever and find this occupant in your garage corner because he smelled kittykat`s litter box or whatever. The strike distance on this serpent is a good 3.5 feet and his fangs are at least 1.0 inch in length, can you even begin to imagine the necrotic tissue damages done to the human body from a reptile this size? If? If? If? you even survived the bite, let alone a young child?
Killing in the wild is one thing far away from human populous, but even near the city? Where people have small animals plus rodent populations?
Think about this one?
The Mafia builds sin city “Vegas” where? The middle of the desert right where the highest population of Mojave Green`s dwell. That`s like calling it The American Black Mamba or something, i think i would rather die than survive the bite and it`s lifelong sufferings from one of those, iv`e seen them as big as this picture. They are almost Ghost looking, a real dryish green brown, with nothing but death in their mouth.
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He has the perfect gauge in his hand in the fact that he is holding it with a 1×2. Using that as a standard it roughly looks to be a 5 1/2 to 6 ft snake. Big and bad and mean when surprized. There are plenty more this size and larger in Texas and the west, don’t worry.
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Look it agree that sometimes people go overboard with the killing of snakes and coyotes and what not, but not that often. People who are calling this man ignorant have, most likely, have never come across a snake even close to this size in the wild.
If I had land with cattle on it that I had to frequent or if I lived on some land with a family, I would kill this snake. Getting bit by a rattle snake sucks a lot and I can’t even really imagine what it would be like to be bit by this snake.
Finally, snake man and the like, perhaps you would have preferred if the man had, instead of killing the snake, brought it to your house. He could have slipped it in through a window and a night, when you were sleeping, you could cuddle with your new pet snake. Like snake man pointed out, it is clearly better to have a snake in your house then a mouse.
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I have seen and handled enough rattlers (live and dead) to know that this is an above average (meaning greater than 6.5 ft) snake. the clue is to look at the coon tail and rattle in relation to the size of the head/body length.
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“Ignorance is what drives people to kill these animals. Either catch it and relocate it away from your house, or if your out in the woods, relocate yourself. Snakes dont accidentally come into your house and exterminate its occupants.”
Oh, really? Well maybe you can share this awe-inspiring wisdom with my West Texas aunt, who crawled into bed one night and felt a strange, cold mass at her feet… You guessed it — a large Diamondback rattle snake was snuggling in bed with her.
As any rational person would do, she leapt out of bed and exterminated the “poor little thing”.
Rattle snakes do have merit and we, as humans, should value their existence at a distance. However, if a rattle snake comes into my yard, placing my children at risk, I’m not going to risk my life to “relocate” it. By the same token, I’m not going to go out into nature, seeking one to kill.
Preserve nature but utilize common sense. Human life trumps animal life, unless you’re an evolutionist, in which case, we’re all just a lot of animals. Oh yeah — and the law of the jungle is kill or be killed.
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It could be photoshopped. Impossible to tell. There is a similar photo making the chain Email rounds that is definitely faked.
But I know this, whether this particular photo is faked or not I have seen a WD’back this big so I personally know they exist. The one I saw was in Slaughter Canyon near Carlsbad Caverns.
I carry an umbrella when I’m hiking the deserts, and he hit the umbrella as I jumped out of the way.
If you are in a gully, stepping over and around big rocks, with the sun to your back and the breeze in you nose, be very careful. The snake can’t smell you coming and you can’t see it until you step around the rock because the shadow is on the far side from your approach. He was partly under the rock and partly up against a wall of the gully and had no where to go.
If you kill one of these suckers, be sure you cut the head off before you cut the rattle off. They can be dead as Genghis Kahn’s granny and still strike by reflexes. I’ve seen that, too.
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what an awesome snake! i hope you skinned it and tanned it properly, carefully leaving the rattle attaced. after you pin it to a board and dry it, apply glycerin to it and it will be soft and supple. With that big ole bad boy, you could make a belt to fit you!
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The guy was either extremely lucky of extremely skilful (or both).
I know quite a bit about photography, and yes, at first glance the photo does look a bit suspicious, and yes there are a lot of fake photos on the internet, but under closer scrutiny this photo does hold up with a high probability of being genuine. I won’t say it’s a total certainty, because in the wake of Avatar it is clear that the technology now exists to fake anything. But flashbulbs do cast harsh shadows, look very carefully and you can find that this shadow exactly matches the outline of the snake, you can also see some detail in the shadow of pants etc.. So the shadow does turn out to be realistic.
Also look at how his arm and shoulder muscles are tensed and his leg is braced, he is obviously holding a heavy weight.
If we estimate his height at around 5″5 then the snake is around 7 foot long and about 6 inches in diameter. That is one big rattle snake.
As to the question of is it possible for a snake to get that big, you should take a look at the anaconda that swallowed a boy. Yes, snakes can get huge, much larger than this.
You people with your negative remarks, you ought to be respectful of this man. He did not have to share this very interesting photo with us, and after your attacks he will probably not be inclined to share another photo with us.
Thank you for this photo and best of luck to you.
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this blog is more entertaining than the photo itself.. but seriously, who wears black nurse shoes for camping?…
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Reading this again after many months and see that there is a new “polling” option available. There is no reason the peta fags should be on here reading, posting/voting other than to cause shit like all the liberal fucks generally do and always have. If you can’t go back to the sixties (fags but at least original) then combined move out to california and host your dick sucking, animal pounding peta parties out there. What losers! Signing out (former sotex) from South Texas bitches.
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First off I Ain’t Dead!
I’m a 6th Gen Texan tried an true.
Don’t kill’em unless I have to. Used to keep’em as pets. They would scare nine shades of white into nearly all my friends. I have kids now so no snakes allowed in the house unless its snake for dinner.
Tastes like Chicken don’t ya know.
Nice photo.
Good size snake but not a monster.
Snakes can and do shed more than once per year.
Depends on the frequency and caliber of their diet. Also rattles can break off.
I do love snakes and I hate it when I have to kill’em. Sometimes this can not be avoided.
I’m in favor of utilizing the meat and hide when ever possible.
I love my trees too but only hug’em when I Pee.
-Granny Kahn
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I have got to say reading these posts are funnier than a night at the inlaws!!!!!! I am a snake lover I have 4 of them in my home as pets, and just recently my son waqs outside riding his bike when he ran one over! We also dont like killing snakes but when they come into my yard and risk me or my family then they need to be taken care of! We live in Arizona and are originally from Iowa so where you live means nothing!!! All you need is respect and from these posts not many of you have that!!!!! Yes we have animals that are indangered but if something was in your yard, campsite, etc. you would do the same to keep your family safe! So from a mother do what is needed of you to do!!!!!!
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“Wow Texans really are as stupid as people say they are.”
Yeah, ignorant bastards say that. Why don’t you go tell that to a NASA scientist? Or maybe someone from the large IT community. I’m sure they’d have a good laugh at you, who can’t even seem to explain your thoughts correctly.
“Well that snake wouldnt be there if you werent there.”
See this is what I’m talking about. Did you mean to say that people wouldn’t COME INTO CONTACT with snakes if they weren’t in the same spot as them? Or did you actually mean what you said: that a snake wouldn’t be in a certain spot if there wasn’t already a person there. Because you know, snakes ARE in places where there aren’t any people at all and THEY WERE around before man even existed. So was your comment irrelevant or just plain stupid? Guess it could be both, right?
“So wouldnt a mother rattlesnake “do what is needed to do”?”
No. She’s not your house cat. And you can’t even begin to compare a mother rattlesnake’s care with a human parent’s concern for the safety of their children.
“…some of us are actually educated and know the damage all the uneducated fucks are causing to this planet.”
Then you’ll also understand that Western Diamondbacks are still found in great numbers (and urban areas) despite centuries of attempted population control by humans.
“Most of you Texans as pussies anyway. Just deal with living with snakes and you’ll be OK.”
Then damn near everyone where you live must be. And not everyone who coexists with snakes is OK. Snakes don’t know or care what your philosophies are and they will bite you regardless. They’ll also bite your unsuspecting pets and children. If dumb faggots like you could have children… ha ha
Honestly, I do like rattlesnakes. But some of you dick loving PETA fags are just ridiculous. You enjoy spewing hate at people for doing things that you don’t like? Who cares? People hate you too. Hope you bastards feel better.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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As I said, I do like rattlesnakes. And I don’t believe in the idea that the only good snakes are dead snakes. They’re both good. Live snakes are very interesting. And dead snakes are extremely tasty. I’d love to have that old rattler in the photo. He’d make a nice meal, belt, wallet, and keychain. If I didn’t plan on eating him, then he’d be on his merry way. I’d be happy to just observe him, if he was out of range of my kitchen. And if the guy in this photo ate the snake and saved the skin, then kudos to him! That looks like a big one!
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I grew up with snakes and I don’t believe that you need to kill one everytime it is in your yard. Snakes are just as afraid of you as you are of it. If you leave it alone it will leave you alone. Granted that snake was a big snake and should have been killed, I’m not a tree hugger or anything but I do believe that you shouldn’t just kill a snake for no reason. And if you do find a snake call the animal shelter…or maybe even a snake hunter to remove it from your property.
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This is photoshopped… no doubt about it… and it’s photoshopped very poorly.
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I’m a Wildlife Restoration and Ecology Student at Arizona State University. I believe in biodiversity and sustainability…. And I am also a hunter.
It is FULLY LEGAL to hunt a diamondback rattle snake with a general hunting license (hopefully this guy had one).
”Ignorance is what drives people to kill these animals. Either catch it and relocate it away from your house, or if your out in the woods, relocate yourself.”
… Seriously, this is the most terrible, ignorant advice I have ever heard. DO NOT try to handle a rattlesnake, especially without proper experience. It is VERY hazardous to your health. Guaranteed that you’ll get bit.
“The only good snake is a dead snake philosophy, that most people have taken (plus other factors) is why we currently have so many endangered species.”
This is very true. But believing that every animal killed is a disaster is ridiculous. The diamond back rattlesnake population did not suffer from this one death. Although they probably don’t have the budget to do a full survey on the rattlesnake populations, I’m sure herpetologists do monitor them to make sure they aren’t falling too low (which I doubt would happen for this species). IF it did happen, hunting regulations would change and killings would decrease because ..well duh there would be less of them.
Extreme conservation is not possible like some people think. You cannot save every individual animal (PETA’s ideals). Human presence has already adversely affected wildlife and the “leaving it alone and letting it take care of itself” ideal it wrong. Populations would explode doing damage to the habitat lessening the resources available. This would ultimately lead to mass extinction in populations, mostly due to starvation (and no I’m not talking about rattlesnakes this is a general example).
If you seriously want to save every animal think about it this way: with the example I have given above, would you rather I kill enough (usually a minimal amount) of the population via gun or arrow or let a mass amount of the population suffer of starvation? Gun or arrow- immediate death to a few hours of pain; Starvation: week or two of extreme suffering. The save every animal ideal is more immoral due to your ignorance and incapability to see things on a larger scale.
Also to all of you who would kill a snake if you saw it in the area of your campsite or home: do it legally. If you’re is a less populated area and have more chance to encounter wildlife like snakes which can be a nuisance, buy a hunting license.
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Westerns dont get as big as eastern rattlers this a huge 6 1/2 ft. snake. The forward pose makes it look eight feet long. If you blunder too close to a snake this big stay out of the woods. We have both kinds of rattlers in south Texas and the only time I came close to getting bit was as a clueless 6 year old. We train our horses too back away calmly from a rattler. To each his own opinion however I disagree with rattlesnake round ups where hundreds are slaughtered at one time.
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“There are plenty more this size and larger in Texas and the west, don’t worry.”
“It could be photoshopped. Impossible to tell. There is a similar photo making the chain Email rounds that is definitely faked.”
“and yes there are a lot of fake photos on the internet, but under closer scrutiny this photo does hold up with a high probability of being genuine.”
You people are effing funny. It took me about 2 seconds looking at the shadow of this snake continue off of the man and right into nothing to see it was a very poor photoshop job. And for the people commenting that they know anything at all about snakes – if you knew anything at all about this species, you’d know that the western diamondback VERY RARELY exceeds 3.5 feet. The only one that gets even close to this is a red diamondback, at about 7 feet ever recorded. The snake this guy is supposedly holding would be over 8 feet long, and is so obviously BS.
Hilarious
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I hate snakes period they dont make no sense seriously !
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Im not being meen or anything but just looking at this picture and at the head of the snake you can tell that it is photoshopped, I mean look at where the head should be and where it is. It doesn’t look right. I do like to eat tasty animals (especially cows and deer) but I am NOT, I repeat NOT any of the names anyone has ever called those of us that are like me. I do believe that if it is not doing any harm, such as it not POISONOUS or DEADLY that it should be left alone or moved away from your house. We had a 6 foot long bull snake slither across our lawn, what did we do? We took it out of the yard and sent it on its way. Nothing wrong with that, same with a gartner snake, why would/should you kill something totally and completely harmless? Use your heads!
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I lived in Florida for four years and never saw one rattlesnake. My mother came down to visit and saw a HUGE Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake while looking at real-estate. She said it had to be close to eight feet long.
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The board he is using to hold up the snake gives you the size. It is 1×2, which is actually 1-1/2X 3/4 inches. That said, this snake is between 50-54″. Big but I’ve seen bigger.
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some people are so stupid why would you kill something for reason have respect for life now if he ate it then its another story but just to kill i mean how would you like to be hit on the head the hung and posted huh wouldnt like it would you me and my dad look for snakes and keep some but we carefully handle then and if they are skinny we feed them and then let them go i would not kill this beautiful creature have respect i think people with this kind of thinking to kill something for no reason is very ignorant think about it love and respect animals just because you can kill them does not mean you should god made animals to eat did he say to kill them for no reason NO!
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“I find most of these comments acceptable. the one about “looking something up before you open you head and let the bb’s run out” is so funny……and the truth.
But this IBen guy is a real piece of shit. People like you are real scum of the Earth. I pity your children.
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Looks photoshopped to me.
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it may be photoshopped because there isnt any shadow that i can see being cast on ole fatty in the background, and he does look scared still! hahahaha
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Joe, You should really not comment on things you don’t know about. The comment you made about “if you think that killing a snake is wrong then move to california with the fags!” was warranted or not an ignorant statement, you sir are a MORON! We Californians do love the country, hunting and our guns as much as you do!
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The rattlesnake in the pic appears to be an Eastern Diamondback, not a Western Diamondback. It’s a big one all right. Forget forced perspective, if the man pictured holding the snake is only four feet tall then the snake would approach eight feet in length.
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People who kill beautiful amazing animals like this are just stupid and ignorant. these creatures are a masterpieces of gods creation and this fat lazy person thinks he is great while killing it???? how dump can people be?? I thought you texas people are so religios?!? why you treat his creation like that??
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