Eastern Black-tailed Rattlesnake vs. Western Black-tailed Rattlesnake

Split in 2012 (Anderson & Greenbaum); both have a black tail and a dark snout. They meet in southwestern New Mexico and in west Texas (records share 10 one-degree squares). A: Broad dark crossbands, often each with a pair of pale spots, on olive-grey to dark grey in the Eastern Black-tailed Rattlesnake; jagged dark diamonds holding single pale scales, on yellow-green to olive in the Western Black-tailed Rattlesnake. B: Grey to olive-grey, often dark in the Eastern Black-tailed Rattlesnake; yellowish, greenish or olive, often bright in the Western Black-tailed Rattlesnake. Many animals cannot be told apart by sight: PLACE HELPS. In New Mexico the Western lives only in the far southwest (the bootheel and the far west of the Gila country); the Eastern everywhere else, from the Black Range east to the Guadalupe Mountains.

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

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