A female Banded Rock Rattlesnake from the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona. These small rattlesnakes are sexually dimorphic, with males often showing metallic green coloration along the back. Females are usually more subdued in comparison, like this typical grey and black banded look. These are one of a handful of protected rattlesnake species in the state.

Up close with a Sonoran Lyresnake (Trimorphodon lambda) from Maricopa County, Arizona. These shy snakes are almost entirely nocturnal, which you’d likely be able to figure out from just those big bug-eyes. They’re mildly venomous, rear-fanged snakes, but generally harmless to humans and pets.

A Twin Spotted Rattlesnake in habitat at the top of a mountain in southern Arizona. These are rattlesnakes that are often mistaken as a non-venomous species due to their small size and head that is not as strongly differentiated from the neck as people expect. They are rarely seen by hikers, but a “what is […]

A large Blacktailed Rattlesnake that we found in the mountains of central Greenlee County. This is a huge, wild area with few roads and much of the high elevation habitat inaccessible without a lot of effort. For that reason, it’s of special interest to me, with relatively few examples of snakes compared to other regions […]

A Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake from the Phoenix area. These snakes can be amazingly adaptable, often perfectly matching the rocky areas where they live in color, and even more difficult to see with the jagged, chaotic pattern. This one carries a PIT Tag, implanted by our team to identify it in the future as part of […]

One of the Indian Elephants (Elephas maximus indicus) we encountered driving through the forests in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, India. This one was making a big deal out of it all, making a lot of sound and throwing vegetation up in the air.

I got a chance to photograph this Barking Frog (Craugastor augusti) on a soaking wet night in the mountains of southeastern Arizona. These relatively large frogs spend nearly their entire lives stuffed into deep fissures and caves on steep, rocky cliffs. On the right nights during the monsoon, they’ll emerge for a short time, where […]

I found this Longnosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei) near Phoenix many years ago. Interestingly, this species is most often mistaken for a kingsnake by locals, even (especially!) by those who identify strongly as “born and raised here.” It’s likely the case that the majority of “kingsnakes” seen by the typical Arizona resident are actually Longnosed Snakes. […]

This couple of female Arizona Black Rattlesnakes was hanging out at the entrance of a den a few summers ago. While these sites are more densely populated during the winter, they’ll also be used by gravid (pregnant) females during the summer, where they can be seen basking in preparation of the little ones during the […]

A morning flight out of Costa Rica gave me one extra evening near the airport in Liberia, Costa Rica, to end a family vacation. I went into the coastal thornscrub to see what there was to see, and found a few of these large Central American Lyresnakes. They seem thicker and less likely to bite […]