Sidewinder

General Information:

Physical Features and Characteristics:

Because of their unique form of locomotion, sidewinders are the fastest-moving of all rattlesnakes.

The distinctive black-and-white banding at the base of the rattle is used as a lure. The snakes shuffle their bodies into soft sand, with their heads barely exposed, then twitch the tail to attract prey.

Sidewinders have raised scales atop their eyes. The function of these remains unknown.

Lifestyle and Reproduction:

Like many other species of pitviper, females of this species will stay with their young for a period of time after they are born. The babies are live-born rather than hatching from eggs. After they shed their skin for the first time, they disperse into the world on their own.

Despite being extremely hot in the summer, the southwestern deserts of the U.S. are cool in winter, so sidewinders hibernate during this period, usually in abandoned rodent burrows.

The sidewinder’s lifespan is 20 years or more.

Range:

This species occurs in two of the four major North American deserts: the Mohave Desert and the Sonoran Desert.

Habitat:

This species lives mostly in very sandy areas of the deserts of the southwestern U.S. and adjacent Mexico, where their unique sidewinding locomotion is an excellent adaptation. Sidewinders occasionally show up in suburban areas of places like Palm Springs, California, or Phoenix, Arizona, where human development has encroached into their native desert habitats.

Diet:

In the wild, sidewinders eat almost exclusively rodents and lizards, with kangaroo rats, whiptail lizards, and fringe-toed lizards being favorite prey. At the Zoo, they do fine on a steady diet of mice.