The team at Rattlesnake Solutions in Arizona has seen just about every kind of snake imaginable. But even for these seasoned experts, one reptile recently stopped them in their tracks.
It began when snake rescuer Marissa Maki responded to a call about a western diamondback rattlesnake spotted on someone’s property. At first glance, she knew something was different. The snake’s markings didn’t match anything she’d ever seen before.
Curious, she snapped a few photos and sent them to her colleagues. Within moments, the pictures had everyone buzzing.
“We were shocked,” said Bryan Hughes, owner of Rattlesnake Solutions. “We weren’t quite sure what we were looking at.”
Hughes immediately dropped everything and rushed to the site to see the unusual snake for himself.
What he found was unlike any diamondback he’d encountered in nearly two decades of work.
“Each side of her body has its own version of a typical pattern, but they don’t connect across the back,” Hughes explained. “Instead, the markings form circles and broken rings, with a peach-colored background that gets lighter near the tail. She’s also missing the usual facial stripes.”
Side by side with a normal western diamondback, the difference is striking.
Though the exact cause of her unique appearance isn’t confirmed, Hughes and his team suspect a genetic mutation.
Past sightings of similarly patterned snakes in the same region suggest it may be linked to habitat fragmentation, which can lead to inbreeding and the expression of rare recessive traits.
Because she was found in a dangerous area, the team brought her back to their facility for safety. There, she’s being carefully observed while experts work to learn more about her rare mutation.
For now, she’s thriving under their care — a living reminder of nature’s unpredictability and resilience.
“This is the kind of snake you could work your whole career and never see,” Hughes said.
