ThatDamnedPanda
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quote:
ORIGINAL: LadyNTrainer
They're also quite easy to breed, and there are some really spectacular color morphs available especially when you intergrade the subspecies. Agkistrodon will breed with anything in or out of its genus, and in-genus crosses are viable and generally fertile too. :)
In my experience, they're very docile, too. I handled both of them for extended periods, and they were perfectly content with the experience. If I recall correctly, it was in the spring, so they may have been half torpid, but still. A very even-tempered snake. I wouldn't mind having one for a pet if I kept pets. I never knew they crossbred so easily. Someone with a passion for them could probably come up with some fascinating variations.
quote:
ORIGINAL: LadyNTrainer
Minnesota timbers are nice but not spectacular. Try South Georgia timbers; locality specimens can have an intense pink-purple background color, a brilliant red line down the back transecting sharp black chevrons, and yellow highlights throughout and especially on the face.
I did see one in Georgia about 10 or 12 years ago, while mountain biking somewhere south of Atlanta. Don't remember where; I was on a business trip, and took a day off to rent a bike and see some backcountry. It was March, so the weather was cool, but a sunny day - so I took the opportunity to patrol for sunbathers on some rock formations. I didn't even realize it was a horridus until I showed the pictures to someone back in Minnesota. Gorgeous colors, though.
I saw one that I think was from Massachusetts in an exhibit somewhere once, and that was a spectacular snake. This was many years ago, when I was just a kid, but I remember a striking black and gold coloration, with the characteristic velvety black tail tipped with an amber rattle. It was very beautiful. Couldn't take my eyes off of it.
quote:
ORIGINAL: LadyNTrainer
The prettiest ones are also the hottest, both in terms of temper and sheer venom potency with something like 33-37% crotoxins. They're in high demand both by hobbyists and venom researchers, but they need a bit more space to breed than coppers and cottons.
Doesn't that species have not only varying potencies of venom, but different types of venom depending on the region? I remember reading once that timbers in some regions have venom that is primarily neurotoxic, and others tend to have venom that is primarily hemotoxic. It's been a while, though, so I may be remembering that wrong. I do recall being quite interested that there would be such variation within a species.
quote:
ORIGINAL: LadyNTrainer
When you say prairie, which C. viridis do you mean? Taxonomists had at the whole viridis complex recently and disorganized everything, so those may be oreganus now depending on your locality.
Probably viridis viridis, but I couldn't say for sure, because it's been over 20 years since I lived out there. I've seen pictures of the oreganus, and it looked substantially different than the ones I recall seeing. I've seen prairie rattlers in both eastern and western Montana (I lived in western Montana, while my family had a ranch on the Missouri in eastern Montana), and the coloration was slightly different in the west, but not significantly. So I was probably seeing the same sub species - grayish olive green background with dark brown, almost black "saddles." It was really quite lovely, unless of course you happened to be a prairie dog. Which I am not, fortunately; nor was I at that time.
< Message edited by ThatDamnedPanda -- 6/10/2010 12:31:15 PM >
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RE: Snakes? - 
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I do not know what you are doing to scare them into behaving this way, but anybody who's ever worked with them will laugh at you and send you back to beginner school if you claim they are "aggressive" or hard to work with. They're disgustingly easy, except for having crappy tail veins for caudal draw, and you will have a much harder time sampling common water snakes. Those are a lot less polite about being handled. 
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