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Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake vs Burmese Python
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DJC
Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
Crotalus adamanteus
Venomous(c) Teá Montagna, some rights reserved (CC BY)
Burmese Python
Python bivittatus
Non-venomousThe quick way to tell
Check the tail tip. The Eastern Diamondback ends in a rattle, often with dark bands just before it. The Burmese Python's tail just tapers, and its back has puzzle-piece blotches, not cream-edged diamonds.
Tail ★ This settles it
Black and white bands ahead of a large rattle.
Thick and muscular, tapering; no rattle.
Head
Very broad triangular head with a bold dark cheek stripe bordered above and below by white.
Big and blocky; dark arrow points forward on top, dark stripe through each eye.
Pattern
Sharply outlined dark diamonds, each edged in cream, on brown to olive.
Dark brown puzzle-piece blotches edged in black on tan.
Eyes
Vertical slit pupil; heat-sensing pit between eye and nostril.
Vertical slit pupil; heat-sensing pits along the lip scales rather than one facial pit.
Pits
A deep heat-sensing pit on each side of the face, between the eye and the nostril.
Heat-sensing pits in the scales along the lips — not between the eye and the nostril.
What it does
Rattles from a coil; will stand its ground.
Lies still in cover; a large one is strong and will bite if handled.
Where it lives
Coastal plain from South Carolina through Georgia and all of Florida, west along the Gulf to Alabama and Mississippi; now likely gone from North Carolina and Louisiana.
Introduced and established in south Florida, mainly the Everglades and surrounding wetlands. Native to Southeast Asia.