Crotalus enyo - Baja California rattlesnake

Meaning
In Greek mythology Enyo was the goddess of war.
Furvus stands for dark, swarthy, black, gloomy, dusky.
Cerralvensis relates to the island they are found on.

English name
Baja California rattlesnake

Distribution
Crotalus enyo is found throughout the peninsula of Baja California, starting from Rio San Telmo southwards to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. They are also found on some of the islands in the Gulf of California and Pacific Ocean surrounding the Baja region.

Habitat
Usually found in a desert like habitat with rocks and thorny scrubs, but in the Sierra de San Lazaro they also are found in deciduous and pine-oak forests.

Description
This rattlesnake has an average length of 70cm with the largest recorded being 89.8cm (Klauber, 1972). This specie for its size has a small head, with large eyes, and a large well developed rattle.
The ground color ranges between different brown shades but snakes from the northern range tend to be darker. The 28-42 dorsal blotches are light colored in side, red to yellow brown, to brown and with dark brown to black borders. They have a slightly raised supraoculars and their proximal rattle is usually black.

Diet
Their diet consists of small mammals like rats, mice, squirrels, but occasionally reptiles and amphibians, especially with newborns.

Venom
C. enyo has a low venom yield (due to their relative small head) but is still potent and able to cause life threatening effects. Venom analysis show hemorrhagic (affects the blood) and phosphodiesterase activity (affects the signal transduction of cells). Protease activity in adult C. e. enyo is very low or absent whereas esterase (BAEE) activity may be absent in some individuals but found in others (both affect the workings of enzymes).

Extra
There is a debate if the C. e. cerralvensis should be dropped and be classified just as a type-locality and be placed under C. e. enyo.