View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rattlesnake Solutions (@rattlesnakesolutions)
Rattlesnake wranglers in Arizona shared a photo of a “weird” snake they came across in the backyard of a Scottsdale home.
Rattlesnake Solutions posted photos to social media showing what appears to be a western diamondback rattlesnake with a leopard-like color pattern. The snake’s bright white tail base with black spots is “the only normal thing about it,” the business said.
Western diamondbacks normally have diamond-shaped patterns on their bodies, but Rattlesnake Solutions said leopard-like pattern is “weird.”
“In the many thousands of diamondbacks we’ve seen over the years, this is a first,” the post said.
The cause was said to be likely a “big pattern mutation.”
“The area it was in rules out hybridization possibilities with most species … not that there’s anything morphologically that indicates that,” the post said. “Of all the possibilities, it’s likely it’s just a funky-looking diamondback.”
The business said the snake, which some commenters on the post speculated to be dead, was captured alive and “healthy.”
