Landscapers working at a Scottsdale home spotted what they thought were two rattlesnakes tucked into the corner of a courtyard and alerted the homeowner.
When Drayvin arrived, the two snakes turned out to be a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake and a Sonoran Gophersnake. As she worked around some bushes to get a better angle, she discovered another Western Diamondback less than two feet away, just around a small corner. Neither the landscapers nor the homeowner had seen it.
It was a good example of how easily a rattlesnake can disappear into a surprisingly small amount of cover, even when everyone already knows there are snakes in the immediate area.
The homeowner would normally have been happy to leave the Sonoran Gophersnake, but a new resident owl had recently taken up residence in the backyard, and she didn’t want the snake becoming a meal.
Drayvin relocated all three snakes to open desert outside the community, releasing them into a large, well-shaded rabbit burrow beneath a shrub.
