THE PHOTOS are authentic and do, in fact, depict an eastern diamondback rattlesnake caught and killed in St. Augustine, Florida in September 2009. Most everything else in this forwarded text is fictitious, however.
Eastern diamondbacks average around 3 to 6 feet in length, and the largest ever documented was 8 feet long. According to news accounts, the specimen pictured on the preceding pages measured a total of 7-feet-3-inches from head to tail — which is impressive, but just short of record size and way short of the 15 feet claimed. Confusing matters further, its apparent length and girth are exaggerated by forced perspective in the photos, in which the rattler is much closer to the camera than the person standing nearby.
Could the snake have weighed 170 pounds, as claimed? Nope. Your average 6-foot-long adult eastern diamondback tops out at around 10 pounds. Even if this specimen measured 15 feet long (over twice the size it's supposed to be), it wouldn't weigh 170 pounds, or even 70.
Someone down in Florida is blessed with a vivid imagination.
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Sources and further reading:
Rattler Found at Tuscany
St. Augustine Record, 30 September 20097-Foot-3 Rattlesnake Caught, Killed
News4Jax.com, 30 September 2009Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus)
Florida Museum of Natural History
Last updated 12/03/11
