I know a lot of people including my own family are hiking Mount Cristo Rey this Easter. ✝️
Warm temperatures and spring-like conditions become ideal weather for snakes. 🌥️
The University Medical Center is the only hospital in the area that treats people for venomous snakebites. 🏥
Doctors said it is best to get to the hospital within 30 to 60 minutes of a rattlesnake bite.
Texas is home to more than 100 species and subspecies of snakes. While a majority are harmless, a few of them can be dangerous. 🐍
Around El Paso we have venomous snakes:
The Western diamondback (Crotalus atrox), has brown, diamond-shaped markings along the middle of the back and alternating black and white rings on the tail. Averages 3 1/2 to 4-1/2 feet in length, and can reach seven feet. This is the most common and widespread venomous snake in Texas, found in all but the easternmost part of the state.
Mottled Rock rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus) is light cream or pink background with widely spaced, dark crossbands and mottled areas between the crossbands. Small and slender with an average length of about two feet. Found in the mountainous areas of West Texas.
Banded Rock rattlesnake (C.l. klauberi) Similar to the mottled rock rattlesnake, but darker greenish-gray in color. Found only in the extreme western tip of Texas.
Blacktail rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) is gray to olive green with dark blotches along the back and a black tail. Averaging a length of 3-1/2 feet, it is found from Central Texas throughout most of West Texas in bushes and on rocky ledges.
Mojave rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus) is similar to the western diamondback in markings, but smaller and more slender and found only in extreme West Texas.
Prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis) is a slender rattler that is greenish or grayish, with rounded blotches down the middle of its back. Average length is about three feet and is found in the grassy plains of the western third of the state.
Desert massasauga (S.c. edwardsii), lighter in color than the western massasauga, smaller and more slender. Found in the Trans-Pecos, western Panhandle and the lower Rio Grande Valley.
Broadbanded copperhead (A.c. laticinctus), about two feet long, widely scattered in central and western Texas; and the Trans-Pecos copperhead (A.c. pictigaster), 20-30 inches in length and found near springs in the southern part of the Trans-Pecos.
Source:
https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/hunter-education/online-course/preparation-and-survival/snakes
More info here:
https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/resources/texas-junior-naturalists/snakes-alive/venomous-texas-snakes
