A wild Speckled Rattlesnake, Crotalus mitchellii, subspecies mitchelli, close-up on a granite rock, against a totally defocussed natural background, on Isla San Jose, a desert island in the the Sea of Cortez off Baja California Sur, Mexico.
The Speckled Rattlesnake is a venomous pit viper, which is found throughout most of Baja California, as well as on several islands. It is also found in S-W USA and northern Mexico. It is diurnal in cool weather and nocturnal in hot weather. It preys on small mammals, lizards and sometimes birds. Its normal length is 24″ – 30″, though some have been found measuring up to 36″.
It was named after Dr Silas Weir Mitchell, an interesting doctor from the late 19th-early 20th centuries who is considered the father of medical neurology He discovered causalgia and erythromelalgia, and pioneered the rest cure. He was considered to be a genius by many contemporaries including Benjamin Franklin, and authored many papers on a variey of medical topics. His papers Researches Upon the Venom of the Rattlesnake: With an Investigation of the Anatomy and Physiology of the Organs Concerned and Experimental contributions to the toxicology of rattle-snake venom have been designated to be so culturally important that they are still available to buy today.
I discovered that Silas Weir Mitchell’s paternal great-grandfather camer from Ayrshire, and moreover that he was a friend of Robert Burns, and was his boss in ‘the Excise’.
This photo is copyright © Liz Leyden. All rights strictly as agreed in writing with the author or her agent.
My Speckled Rattlesnake photo is available to purchase as a Royalty-free stock photo from iStock and also from GettyImages.
My photo of a Spectacled Rattlesnake is also available for sale as various types of wall art, and as home and personal accessories, from my gallery at Pixels.com.
