Biodiversity Group, DSC04266
One of our study sites in the sky island mountains of Sonora, Mexico, is home to a huge abundance of Crotalus willardi obscurus, the New Mexican ridge-nosed rattlesnake. They are almost completely gone within the US, however, and their numbers and range having dwindled from collecting and habitat destruction, leading to a Threatened status by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Note the tail paint designating that this animal has been implanted with a radio transmitter.