South Pacific Single

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Good morning everyone.

[00:00:04]Welcome to the third full day here in California.

[00:00:08]We are going to be out trail hiking here for a little while.

[00:00:13]Um scenario that I was given some pointers on there being some cover and stuff to check out. So, we're going to see if flipping is still good around here and go from there.

[00:00:26]There's quite a few species in this canyon. So, fingers crossed, fair bit shows up.

[00:00:50]Unfortunately, thanks to the March heat wave drying everything out, all the boards would behave [music] pretty much like this all day long. There were some cool wildflowers around, but not a whole lot of snake activity.

[00:01:38]Well, if the snakes don't show up, the birds are.

[00:01:44]And that one's a snake hunter.

[00:02:01]>> Well, so far 3 and 1/2 hours of hiking and the only evidence we got is yet another snake track that seems to have occurred since the time I was last through here a couple hours ago.

[00:02:12]Go figure.

[00:02:14]Yeah, so we're coming out for the second time today.

[00:02:20]I just found a new board actually, so Oh my god.

[00:02:28]There's a soap hack.

[00:02:35]Ah, damn it. And he's gone.

[00:02:42]If I can hear him, I might be able to find him after I put the board back.

[00:02:50]At least I got to see him though.

[00:02:52]So I actually had to get a hand on him to get any real looks.

[00:03:00]Uh, he was going through the bushes, which is the only reason I was able to try that. I definitely do not recommend handling a soap hack otherwise, but this is Crotalus organus helleri or Crotalus helleri depending on who you talk to.

[00:03:18]The Southern Pacific rattlesnake.

[00:03:21]And what some may consider to be perhaps the second or third most toxic rattlesnake in North America because they too possess variations of the Mojave toxin, the neurotoxins that uh some of these uh Southwestern rattlesnakes have.

[00:03:39]This is a moderately sized one.

[00:03:44]He's only about uh 2 and 1/2 ft or so.

[00:03:51]I'm trying to There we go.

[00:04:00]Get a look here past the uh twigs that I grabbed him with.

[00:04:08]But these guys are quite variable in color. They're actually very similar to the uh Arizona blacks in some ways. Some of them are very pale-colored backgrounds with dark saddles. Others are very, very dark just overall in general. Some of them actually have pinks or greens on them. This guy's actually got little hints of both.

[00:04:28]But that is just That is a gorgeous animal.

[00:04:33]And he's prevented us from getting skunked today. Whoop.

[00:04:39]Look at that.

[00:04:41]Okay, I know. I know.

[00:04:44]I won't bother you too much longer, okay?

[00:04:47]I just wanted to get a good look at you.

[00:04:50]It's a gorgeous snake, though.

[00:04:52]All right, we're going to get the other camera briefly and then we're going to let him go back under the board here.

[00:04:57]Come from the north slopes of the transverse ranges down into the middle of Baja California. These guys have fairly wide range and they are generally the most common rattlesnake within their range as well. Unfortunate since they're also a fairly potent venom and also one of the most populated areas in the entire country, which means this is the snake that most people in California get bitten by. Usually not the fault of the snake. It's mostly people who are either not paying attention or they're intentionally harassing the animal for some reason.

[00:05:30]If you don't mess with them, you're not likely to get bit, of course, and pay attention when you're walking around in their native habitat. Now, their habitat is quite variable, though. They range from the desert slopes uh all the way up into almost the tops of many of these [music] mountain ranges up to 8, 9,000 ft plus.

[00:05:47]So, they inhabit a wide range of habitats as well as they take on a lot of different kinds of prey as well.

[00:05:56]Particularly though, a lot of small mammals, rodents, and lagomorphs and such. Meaning they are a very important pest control as it were.

[00:06:54]All right, so admittedly kind of a short and sweet day, but hey, we do have another species on the list.

[00:07:01]Hopefully you guys enjoyed seeing him.

[00:07:02]He was quite a pretty one.

[00:07:05]Now, if you're seeing this as an outro, that means when I return here in the morning, hopefully much earlier in the morning, or at least throughout the rest of tomorrow, things will have gone a whole lot better. So, stay tuned for that.

[00:07:19]But until then, if you enjoyed this video, make sure to leave a like.

[00:07:23]Comments down below if you got them, and make sure to subscribe so you don't miss anything coming up.

[00:07:28]If you want to learn more about the stuff that I work with, visit my website at carltoncarnivores.com or find me on social media.

[00:07:35]I am at Carlton Carnivores on all platforms that I am on.

[00:07:38]And if you'd like to help support this channel, uh because these trips are expensive and time-consuming consider buying some of the plants or merchandise on my website shop.

[00:07:52]Or you can become a Patreon member where you get early access to the videos and other exclusive kickbacks as well. You can also do one-time donations if you don't want to become a member uh at coffee.com/hcarleton. Links for all these things will be in the video description below, but until next time I'm Hocking Carlton and this is Carlton Carnivores.