Reptiles · Squamata · Viperidae

Timber Rattlesnake

Crotalus horridus

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The timber rattlesnake is a venomous snake of the subfamily Crotalinae that lives in the eastern United States. It is the only rattlesnake species across most of the north-eastern United States, and is second only to its western relative, the prairie rattlesnake, as the most northerly venomous snake in North America. It is known as the timber rattlesnake, canebrake rattlesnake or banded rattlesnake. No subspecies are recognised.

Weight

500 g – 2.5 kg

Size

90 cm – 1.5 m

Lifespan

30 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

Temperate forestMountainCarnivore Diurnal Solitary Reptile Temperate forest Mountain

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Fun facts

GeneralVery reluctant to bite: it may lie coiled and motionless for a long while before striking.
sentidosIt can sense its prey's body heat through pits on its face, even in the pitch dark of closed forest.
Its hibernation dens are communal and ancestral: dozens of snakes share the same rock crevice year after year for generations, and the young learn the route by following the adults' chemical trail. Destroying one den wipes out the population for kilometres around.
Females do not breed until they are over seven years old, and then only every three or four seasons: the slowest reproduction of any North American snake.
Related females have been documented staying together through gestation, and mothers staying with their young for the first few days, a degree of social care hardly expected in a snake.