Eastern Diamond Back Rattlesnake

Welcome to the next installment of Shit That Can Kill You Friday's!

This week STCKYF features the eastern diamond back rattlesnake.

Native to the southeast united states (that's right folks, it lives among us), the eastern diamond back is the largest rattlesnake in the world. They are known for their signature striking pose, where they lift their body off the ground to maximize their striking distance. Though they are not known to be aggressive, when provoked they will strike and it is common for them to strike multiple times. Their striking distance is roughly 1/3 of their body length, so don't get too close.

Science nerds call the amount of venom injected into the prey when the snake strikes the "venom yield". The venom yield of the eastern diamond back is 400-450mg on average but it can be as high as 1000mg. here's the kicker, it only takes 100-150mg of venom to kill a person. They're not just going to kill you, they're going to kill you several times over. Plus their fangs are the largest of any rattle snake species in proportion to their body length. An 8ft eastern diamondback has fangs that are over 1in long!

The venom they inject contains a nasty enzyme called "crotalase". This stuff causes blood to clot, hemolysis of red blood cells, muscle mobility loss and cardiac failure. One case described the symptoms of a bite "like two hot hypodermic needles... spontaneous bleeding from the bite site, intense internal pain, bleeding from the mouth, hypotension, weak pulse, swelling, and strongly hemorrhagic". To those of you who might not know "hemorrhagic" means it can cause hemorrhages (I had to google that). Personally I'm not a fan of the "hot needles" description. I guarantee the next time I have to get a shot this is definitely going to cross my mind. That's some super scary stuff.

Fun Fact: The only time I've ever seen an eastern diamondback rattlesnake was on a backpacking trip with Dad. I walked right up to it not knowing death was sitting four feet from me. To strike me from 4 ft, the snake would need to be roughly 12 ft long. But even for a 6 ft snake, 4 feet is too close for comfort. Dad saw the snake and nearly had a heart attack because his favorite child was so close to one of nature's murderers. As bullets of sweat dripped off his face, Dad tried to warn me about the snake as calmly as he could....

Turns out the snake was dead (lucky me!) so I pulled out my handy dandy Bear Grylls Knife and cut off its rattle to keep as a souvenir to forever remind me of my brush with death. True Story.

This one lives in our neck of the woods so I extra mean it this week: Stay safe out there.

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Charles R Mercer

Amateur Zoologist