Prairie Rattlesnake

• Scientific Name: Crotalus viridis
• Niimiipuutímt: wéexpus

Adults have a triangular head, blunt nose, narrow neck, and stout body and range in length from 15-60 inches. Skin color can range from pale green to brown with a series of brown or black blotches ringed with a dark and then light line. The blotches merge into rings on the rattle-tipped tail. Shaking its rattle tail to warn potential predators, its fangs are hollow and hinged, allowing them to be folded back against the roof of the mouth.

Range:  These rattlesnakes are found in North America over much of the Great Plains in central the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

Their huge distribution ranges from southwestern Canada through the United States from Montana and Idaho east to western Iowa and south to Texas and into northern Mexico. They inhabit most of Montana, where it is one of 10 snake species but the only venomous one found in the state. 

Habitat:  They are found mostly in grasslands and prairies but also in woods, forests, brush, caves, rock ledges, and alongside streams. The species tends to avoid desert areas.  Prairie rattlesnakes are found from near sea level up to over 9000 ft (2700 m) of altitude in Wyoming.

Food:  Due to the prairie rattlesnakes extensive range, they prey on a variety of animals. Usually, they prefer small mammals, like prairie dogs, voles, shrews, ground squirrels, small rabbits, mice or rats and ground nesting birds and sometimes even other snakes. Juvenile and younger snakes will occasionally feed on smaller amphibians and reptiles.

Nez Perce Traditional Uses:  Nez Perce would make poison arrows in preparation for war by provoking captured rattlesnakes into striking pieces of liver which they then smeared onto arrowheads. It is said the Nez Perce Indians invoked a charm against evil by placing a rattler’s head on hot coals in the earth and covering it with fresh liver and gall from wild beasts. During the steaming the liver was thought to absorb venom from the head, which was then carried as a talisman in a buckskin bag.