Sidewinder

• GeneralIt moves sideways across the sand, leaving a trail of J-shaped tracks.
• locomociónIt moves with a characteristic sideways action that keeps its body off the hot sand as much as possible, leaving a very distinctive trail of parallel marks.
• Its sideways movement leaves a trail of parallel J-shaped lines in the sand rather than a continuous track, and it is so characteristic that the species can be identified without seeing the animal.
• That movement minimises contact with the burning sand and stops it sinking in, and it has been studied by engineers designing robots able to move over loose ground without getting stuck.
• It buries itself in the sand until only its eyes and heat pits are showing, and waits like that, invisible, for a rodent to pass within reach.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat and environment

Dunes and sandy plains of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, in the United States and Mexico

Sexual maturity

3 years

Gestation / incubation

5 months of gestation

Litter / clutch size

10 live young

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Crotalus cerastes

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.