A large Veracruz Neotropical Rattlesnake (Crotalus mictlantecuhtli) from a trip to Mexico a few years ago. This species was recently recognized as a separate lineage of the Neotropical Rattlesnakes, described in 2020, about a year before this photograph was taken.
A cool little viper with horn-like scales above the eyes. That’s a common thing with arboreal vipers in Central and South America, but vipers with “horns” are relatively few in comparison. They’re closely related to other montane vipers in the area that have similar structures, but live more familiar lives in steep, heavily vegetated forests.
A few hours of careful scouring of perfect habitat turned up none of these. Then after having more or less given up, I decided to flip some rocks near the cars while we waited for the crew to reassemble … and poof: the target. It’s fun when that happens.
Mexican Parrot Snake in the subtropical forest of southern Mexico.
I spotted this Central American Boa crawling along the upper edge of an eroded dirt wall in southern Mexico a few years back. It was a young boa, maybe 4 feet long. It seemed pretty busy searching along the vegetation transition, and allowed some easy photos.
