An Arizona Black Rattlesnake (Crotalus cerberus) from the southern extent of their range.

An Arizona Black Rattlesnake (Crotalus cerberus) from the southern extent of their range.

We found this Twin Spotted Rattlesnake high in the mountains of southeastern Arizona. These tiny rattlesnakes are sometimes seen by hikers visiting the sky islands, finding them scurrying off trails at high elevation. They’re usually only around a foot and a half long as adults and quick to exit if anyone shows up – a person would have to really try to be bitten by one.

An Arizona Black Rattlesnake from southern Arizona. Even though I’m only in this location once or twice each year, I have seen this one several times over the last decade. There’s a small rock pile next to a log that it spends much of the summer making small movements around, and it was good to see it again as a little bit older, larger version of the last sighting a few years prior.

Arizona Black Rattlesnake giving me a reminder to keep my distance and leave it alone. I spotted this one crawling from a small drainage back to tangled debris at the base of a sycamore in southern Arizona.
