Employees arriving at this Phoenix office got an unexpected welcome when a large Western Diamondback Rattlesnake rattled from its coil just outside the revolving front entrance. The warning was enough to stop them in their tracks, and they gave us a call. When we arrived, the snake was still in place, making for a straightforward capture. The office sits directly across the street from a preserve, with an additional patch of native desert alongside the building, so it’s easy to see how the rattlesnake found its way to the property. It was safely relocated to suitable habitat within its native range.

The homeowner was having his house painted when one of the painters spotted what appeared to be a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake in the backyard. They lost sight of it before we arrived, but when Marissa searched the area she found the snake coiled beneath a stack of bricks not far from where it had last been seen. The Scottsdale home backs up to native desert with a view fence, and the large boulders behind the property provide excellent natural habitat, making occasional visits into neighboring yards unsurprising. The rattlesnake was safely relocated to suitable habitat within its native range.

This young Western Diamondback Rattlesnake stood out a bit too well against the bougainvillea litter on the patio of a Phoenix home. There was nothing especially unusual about the call itself, but the relocation took a little extra effort. CJ had to hike the snake about a mile into the preserve to legally access a release area that was only about 150 yards from where the snake was originally found, avoiding private property along the way.

At the bottom of a sandy wash, he found a deep cave with plenty of cover from nearby Palo Verde trees, making for an ideal release site within the snake’s estimated home range. As an added bonus, the hike included an encounter with a few bees, always part of the adventure in the Arizona desert.