What About Those Claims of Giant Rattlesnakes?

Snakes intrigue the public.

Even though most fear snakes, people can’t help but click on videos and photos of snakes, especially big ones.

Images of people holding large, dead rattlesnakes are all over the Internet and with spring arriving and snakes on the move, I thought we would address this issue.

A while back I asked my friend renown snake expert Austin Stevens of Austin Stevens Snakemaster and Austin Stevens Adventures about these claims of giant rattlers.

Q: There are rumors of gigantic eastern diamondbacks killed and seen over the years. What do you think the maximum potential size is for this species?

A: As mentioned before, the eastern diamondback rattlesnake is the largest venomous snake in North America, and is known to average around 5.5 feet in length. The largest specimens found have been closer to eight feet, weighing in at about 10 pounds—a formidable snake, to say the least.

Snakes grow all their lives, though the process slows as they get older. An eastern diamondback rattlesnake may live to be 20 years old. No one knows for sure in the wild. Its rate of growth would most commonly depend on the availability of food, though some specimens just simply do grow faster and bigger than others. (As noted in captive specimens)

I am often asked to comment about dead snakes in photographs being held up to the camera with exaggerated claims to their size. In these instances it is immediately obvious that the snake is extended close to the lens, making it look bigger, while the person holding out the specimen, usually on a pole, looks that much smaller in the back ground.

Claims of 15-foot rattlers being spotted have never been substantiated, and are ludicrous. Having said this, it is not unrealistic to imagine that in some uninhabited wilderness area where humans have not made their presence over abundant, there might still be unrecorded eastern diamondbacks in excess of 8.5 feet in length.

In 2020, I did a podcast on this topic and addressed a long forgotten “giant rattlesnake” photo that appeared in a 1970s edition of Sports Afield. You can listen via the player below.