The sidewinder rattlesnake lives in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts of Southwestern America. It has adapted to the hot, dry climate through behaviors like moving in an S-shape across the sand to avoid overheating its body, and hiding under the top layer of sand during the day to stay cool. As a nocturnal hunter, it uses pits on its face to detect the infrared radiation of warm-blooded prey like rodents through the sand.

1. The South-Western American
Sidewinder Rattlesnake

2.  The sidewinder rattlesnake lives in a desert biome just
above the tropic of cancer in South-Western America.
 The snake and it’s sub-species range from only the Mojave
and Sonoran deserts of south-eastern California, western
Arizona, southern Nevada and extreme south-western
Utah to Mexico.

3. 40
As you can see the graph 35
shows what you might expect 30
90
from a northern hemisphere 75
25
desert. Low rainfall and high
60
temperatures: especially in 20 Av. precipitation - cm
Average high in °C
June and July when the 15 45
Average low in °C
northern half of the globe is 10 30
receiving a lot of direct infra- 5 15
red radiation in combination 0 0
with the continuous
hot/moisture-less winds that
ascend from the equator and Climate chart to show how the
temperature and the rainfall
other sub-tropical zones. occurs over the Mojave desert
(which lies in South Eastern
California at 35° to 36° latitude
North and 115° to 117° longitude
East) in a year.

4. The climate chart shows what
the general weather system is
that the snake has to adapt to.
These are a few other things that
may also affect the snakes’
habitats and hunting hours:-
 The Mojave Desert is a "high
desert" because it has an
elevation of 2,000 to 5,000 feet.
 The Mojave Desert is the
smallest of the four North
American desert only covering
25,000 square miles.
 Hours of daylight vary
throughout the year due to the
fact the desert lies at a latitude
of 35.5 ° North.

5. Size:-
The length of a Sidewinder can range from 1.5 to 2.5 feet, but
Sidewinders of over 30 inches (2.6 feet) are rarely observed.
Habitat:-
The Sidewinder can often be found in animal borrows or just under
the top layer of the desert sand (as not to burn or damage it’s skin
from the hot sand). They are primarily nocturnal animals.
Hunting:-
The Sidewinder is a nocturnal venomous hunter, coming out when
the sand (with it’s low specific heat) is cool and mainly hunts small
rodents (like the Kangaroo rat) or lizards.
Reproduction:-
Sidewinders mate April through May, sometimes in the fall. Females
give birth to 5-18 young (in a litter) late summer to early fall. The
young are born, in an embryonic membrane, 6 to 8" long.

6.  To conserve energy and in an attempt to thermo-
regulate itself (as it isn’t an endotherm-an animal
which produces it’s own heat via respiration which can
regulate using hormones) the rattlesnake moves over
the scorching sand in an ‘S-shaped’ way throwing itself
into lateral/ longitudinal waves. It also presses two
points of it’s body into the sand (thus lifting up the rest
of it’s body – cooling these parts down). The two points
touching the ground also change rapidly when it is
moving, as so they do not get too hot.
 By this movement the snake is extremely efficient and
can also bury itself in the sand (in cooler sand) to keep
cool and more importantly to lay in wait and use
decompressions in the side of it’s head to detect infra-
red given off by warm-blooded rodents (but not lizards
as they are ecothermic/ cold-blooded).

7.  These ‘Horns’ on the snake’s head are not actually
horns, but rather flaps that are thought to protect the
snake as it burrows through the sand and into other
animals’ habitats.
 The snake also processes a high surface area to
volume ratio making heat loss by
conduction, convection and radiation easier. Which is
crucial in terms of thermo-regulation on a hot day
time.
 The snake also has a desert style camouflage to help
to blend into the environment (not to mention when
it buries itself in the sand when hunting and keeping
cool, and safe from possible predators (such as
quaternary consumers like birds)
 The colour of the camouflage is also reasonably
dark, meaning the Sidewinder Rattlesnake can emit
the infra-red radiation it has absorbed away quicker
(another technique in which it can thermo-regulate
itself).

8. The South-Western American
Sidewinder Rattlesnake