Bruce Ireland is a snake wrangler based in southern California, and videos of the snakes he comes across in his day-to-day job sometimes go viral. Ireland recently shared a video on social media showing a massive “beast” of a rattlesnake. It’s a red diamond rattlesnake (Crotalus ruber), a species that lives in southwestern California, and it appears to have just eaten a big meal.
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“One of the biggest and thickest [rattlesnakes] I’ve seen,” wrote Ireland in his Instagram post sharing a video of the beast.
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Ireland approaches the animal with the grabber tool he uses to pick up venomous snakes. It rattles furiously at it and sniffs the front of the tool. The large bulge in the center of the snake’s body is likely its prey that it recently ate whole. Rattlesnakes use venom to incapacitate their prey before swallowing them in full.
“Look at the girth on this rattlesnake,” he says in the video. “That is a beast.”
We don’t get to see how Ireland eventually picks it up.
See the beast of a rattlesnake here:
Header stock image of red diamond rattlesnake by Alexander Wong/Getty Images
