RAIN-HARVESTING BY THE SOUTHWESTERN SPECKLED RATTLESNAKE (CROTALUS MITCHELLII PYRRHUS)

Acquiring water is a challenge For desert animals, and organisms inhabiting arid regions have evolved morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits to maintain all appropriate water balance. Oil four occasions, I observed rain-harvesting or observed behaviors suggestive of rain harvesting in a population of speckled rattlesnakes (Crotalus mitchellii) in the Mojave Desert of southwestern North America. Snakes collected rainwater oil the sill-face of their bodies and subsequently drank it.. Speckled rattlesnakes also drank rainwater that accumulated ill Structural features of their habitat (e.g., surface of rocks). My observations Suggest that C. mitchellii may engage in rain-harvesting when thermal conditions arc not optimal (i.e., during cold temperatures). For instance. rattlesnakes presumably emerge from hibernation to take advantage of rainwater.