A chubby rattlesnake? Apparently vipers can pack on pounds too, Alabama officials say

If it’s possible for a rattlesnake to be insulted, Alabama wildlife officials did it by sharing a photo of an eastern diamondback — calling it “chubby.”

Venomous eastern diamondbacks aren’t exactly known for their slender build, but this particular pit viper does seem a bit full-bodied, for lack of a more polite term.

The photo, posted Wednesday on Facebook, has prompted hundreds of reactions and comments, many from people unfamiliar with the fact that eastern diamondbacks roam parts of Alabama. Most of the commenters were clearly not rattlesnake fans, with some noting the robust snake’s skin would make a great pair of boots.

“That’s a fatty!” Kristy N. Sandy Harris bluntly wrote on a Facebook.

“Doesn’t look it has missed many meals,” Travis Black said.

“Such a chunk. I wonder if it’s a big healthy male or possibly a pregnant female,” Bronc Rice posted.

Several people joked the seemingly pudgy viper was about to eat a cell phone in the photo. Either that, or it was trying to take a selfie, some said.

State wildlife officials offered no details on the gender or length of the snake, which they said was seen in the Little River area in southern Alabama’s Monroe County. The cell phone was added to the photo for size reference.

The point of the post was not to make fun of the snake, but to ask hunters to refrain from killing or bothering “any species of wildlife except designated game species.”

As to whether it might actually be fat, eastern diamondbacks are known to be “stout-bodied pit vipers,” National Geographic says.

The species can grow to 8 feet and 10 pounds, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. That makes them the “longest and heaviest venomous snake” in North America, the institute says.

“However, when you do see a live diamondback, it is not the length of the snake that is most impressive but the girth,” Wildflorida.com reports. “A five-foot long rattlesnake is not the slender sinuous shape one usually associates with a snake, but can look almost as stout as a human leg.”

So maybe it wasn’t “chubby.” And, yeah, it could have eaten that cell phone — if it wanted to.

This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 8:49 AM with the headline "A chubby rattlesnake? Apparently vipers can pack on pounds too, Alabama officials say."