Pennsylvania rattlesnakes

[Pistol Shooter]

Here on the front range of Colorado, it's almost entirely western diamondbacks we see, along with an occasional prairie rattler. Neither is very aggressive, but still, they are best avoided. A year or two ago our geology instructor took his class up on the hills that lie behind our school to look at geologic formations. They encountered one big diamondback up there curled up under a bush. Some of the students (the girls!) kind of freaked out, but the rattler didn't try to bother them in any way. He (she?) didn't even rattle.