reptiles in arizona
 

We're planning on spending 5 days in the sedona area. Is it true that there rattlesnakes?

You already asked this question. Perhaps you just need a good sedative. You might want to take one now.

Maybe 1441 is hoping the snakes have relocated since he/she first asked the question.

While visiting Arizona a few months back I was hiking in Sedona. I saw these cute little prairie dog lookin' critters. They were so cute. We were keeping an eye on them, not realizing that they seem to be dinner for area snakes. We saw a 3 foot rattle snake slink into one of the holes and decided that we did not want to be near these cute little animals! Later the same trip we were visiting Casa Grande and having a bite at a picnic table. I stood up to toss some trash into a nearby can and a 5 ft rattlesnake was about 2 feet from me. I jumped on to the bench and he slithered away.
So... YES they are everywhere!

Did you know that in the Southwest, prairie dogs often carry plague?

Yuk! The fleas on Prairie Dogs or the dogs themselves?

Also beware of Gila monsters. These live in southern Arizona. Lethal if you even get within spitting distance.

Snakes are NOT everywhere. I've lived in AZ since 1980; the last 7 have been in Cave Creek, which is pretty rural. Have only seen rattlesnakes three times. Obviously you need to exercise caution but I wouldn't worry about running into a snake.

I hear arizona has 40 ft. rattlesnakes with xray vision and ESP. True??

Everyone knows that St.Patrick drove the snakes from Arizona one thousand years ago.

Orangetravelcat - I lived in Cave Creek for 13 years until a couple of years ago when we moved 4 miles east to Scottsdale. Maybe we should have a Fodors Valley of the Sun get together....I work at the middle school in the Cave Creek District where our mascot is the rattlesnake and we regularly have rattlesnakes on campus, probably half a dozen a year, occasionally even in a classroom. One year a teacher was bitten on the thumb while trying to move a snake to the desert, but that's the only casualty we've had.

Panhandle, True story. As the new school year began in Tampa a few weeks ago a student and a school employee were bitten in separate incidents on two different campuses within a week of each other, both bitten by pygmy rattlers. After the 2nd incident, our local TV station was reporting on the bite and describing the snake to warn others away from possible encounters: The pygmy rattler is pale grey with black saddles down its back, and ranges in length from 12 to 24 feet. Not a blink...not a bit of hesitation, not an "er" or an "uh". Picture a 24' long rattlesnake! =-o It wasn't until the very end of the newscast that they came back and corrected their error, and in the meantime there were a lot of people shaking in their boots imagining what was out there, lurking in the bushes, waiting to swallow us in a single gulp.

WOW! I didnt realize they had 1.Rattlers in Tampa at all. 2 '24 footers !
Here in Oregon and also in Nevada they are much smaller. I have heard stories of them getting in to schools also but never two the same day!
Maybe there is something to this ESP thing. LOL
You also have Cottonmouths there right? No funny comments from those who travel to Amsterdam!

Nonono...I guess I didn't make that clear, sorry! The TV anchors had made a mistake. Their teleprompter probably said 12-24", but instead of reading the " as inches, they read it as feet. Pygmy rattlers are little fellas--little and very very venomous with a teeny almost inaudible rattle, making them more dangerous.

Yes Tampa does have rattlers but not 24 feet long, :) and in the 7 years I've lived here I've only seen one and it was dead. However, it had eaten a full sized rabbit before it died (one of our engineers is a snake aficionado and did surgery for the skin, thus we know what the lump was) so you know it was a good sized snake. That one was an eastern diamondback and probably 6' but I saw no need to get the tapemeasure. :) Our landscapers run into them occasionally, but the snakes don't want to see us any more than we want to see them, so although they are around, I'd almost think you'd be fortunate to actually spot one.

Not to frighten 1441, but our daughter and s-i-l did see one in the Grand Canyon, coiled on a ledge as they came around a bend on an <i>UNMAINTAINED</i> trail. It was head level to them. S-i-l was first and didn't see it, but snake was on ready alert after he went and was rattling for our daughter...who spotted it too late to do anything but keep on and get past it. This was a trail almost no one hikes and was in poor enough condition that they eventually turned back. I can't imagine anyone ever spotting one on Bright Angel or Kaibab with all the constant activity there!

I beg to differ, orange...
Snakes ARE everywhere. You just don't see them often.
The correct way to phrase it might be... Rattlesnakes are not everywhere.
I live in Texas and can find a snake just about anywhere, if I look.
They generally don't come to me, though.

HEEERE Snakey snakey snakey....
HEEEEERE snakey snakey.
Nope..
Dont come to me either :-d