Sidewinder

(Crotalus cerastes)

Color Photographs: © Corel Corp.

Sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes)

Identification:  Length 17 to 32 inches. Rattles present. Head with a conspicuous triangular, hornlike projection over each eye. Scales strongly keeled and snake appearing round in appearance. Color light gray to brown-gray typically with a pattern of spots or vague patches.

Geographical Variation:

Mohave Desert Sidewinder (C. c. cerastes): Bottom segment of rattle brown and number of scales in a scale row 21. Range: Mohave Desert, southeastern Utah, and southern Nevada.

Sonora Sidewinder (C. c. cercobombus): Bottom segment of rattle black and number of scales in a scale row 21. Range: Southern Arizona to the state of Sonora in Mexico.

Colorado Desert Sidewinder (C. c. laterorepens): Bottom segment of rattle black and number of scales in a scale row 23 (southeastern California and Baja California).

Range (see map on left): The Sidewinder occurs along the deserts of the western half of central and southern California extending eastward across southern Nevada to southwestern Utah. The species extends southward to western Arizona and further south into Baja California and the state of Sonora in Mexico.

Habitat: This is a desert species found in sandy washes, flatlands and mequite covered sand dunes.

Food:  Rodents and lizards.

Behavior: The Sidewinder moves with a distinctive s-shaped motion leaving behind j-shaped marks in the sand (if the habitat is sandy. It is a largely nocturnal species and spends the day in mammal burrows.

Reproduction:  Mating takes place in April and May with the young appearing in later summer to early fall. 5 to 18 young are produced by each female per year.

Sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes)

The triangular projections over each eye make this the easiest of the North American rattlesnakes to identify.

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