by Joel La Rocque

Created on: November 30, 2008

The Mojave ( or Mohave ) rattlesnake is classified as follows:

Kingdom= Animalia, Order= Squmata, Sub-order= Serpentasa, Phylum= Chordata

Sub-phylum=Virtibrata, Class=Reptila, "Family"=Viperada, Genus=Crotalus,

Species= Scutulatus.

Now that this is out of the way, lets talk about this marvelous creature. The Mojave green is a mid sized rattlesnake that inhabits the arid portions of the West and Southwestern United States and northern most portions of Mexico. In the past ten or so years the Mojave green has received quite a bit of negative publicity mainly due to its virulent type of venom which is called "Mojave toxin type A". True this is a very potent form of venom which works against the central nervous systems in mammals. It eventually stops the respiratory centers of the brain from signaling the lungs, telling them to breath. In essence the victim forgets to breath and dies. Before this happens though the muscles of the body become quite active and twitch uncontrollably, this is called "Fasciculations". The body temperature becomes elevated, the victim becomes incoherent and lapses into a coma. This can take up[ to 72 hours post bite. With out treatment over 50% of the bite victims die, with treatment 0.01% die.

This snake has been frequently misidentified with the Western diamondback, as both are present in parts of its home range. The Mojave's tail bands are different from the Western rattlers in that the white segmented rings are much wider then the black. Also the white line which extends downwards below the eye does not come into contact with the mouth, in the western diamondbacks, the line intersects the mouth and angles off to the rear. The Mojave also has a greenish base color in most of the species but not all. In adults, the western diamondback is much longer and heavier. Back to the venom, not all of the Mojave's carry this type A venom though. Some that live around the Phoenix AZ. area have the type B, or proteolytic type venom. This is the type of venom most other rattlesnakes have. However there are areas that harbor Mojave greens which have both types A and B, these are by far the worst ones to be bitten by.

There are no valid reasons to keep anyone from enjoying the wilderness areas where these snakes populate. The common sense rules should keep you safe. ie. Do not stick your hands into holes with out knowing what might be inside. Step around logs rather then stepping over and onto a resting snake. Watch snakes from a far, do not try and catch

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