Can you find the rattlesnake in this Arizona photo? A lot of people don’t see it

If there’s anything worse than finding a rattlesnake on your porch, it’s not seeing it but knowing it’s lurking — nearby.

Such was the challenge issued when an Arizona snake catching service shared a photo from one of its calls on Facebook and challenged viewers to find the snake.

The image, taken south of Phoenix in Ahwatukee, shows a Rattlesnake Solutions trapper arrived to face a porch full of potted plants — nearly 20.

Any of them might have had a snake under it.

The Oct. 21 post got nearly 400 reactions and comments in 16 hours, many from people who were stumped.

“Well I’m gonna get bitten … I can’t see the snake!” Sheila Gbelia posted.

“I’ve been looking for 30 minutes now and still can’t find it,” Jacqueline Jay wrote.

“Now I’m worried. I’m a gardener,” Brenda Nichols said.

Rattlesnake Solutions revealed the rattlesnake’s location in a followup post Tuesday, Oct. 22, and it surprised a lot of people.

Instead of hiding under a pot, the southwestern speckled rattlesnake was coiled up at the highest possible spot among the plants.

“How did it get up there?” Esteban Vieyra Zatarain and several other people asked.

“It climbed,” Rattlesnake Solutions said. “There are a lot of structures leading up there that would make it easy. ... It’s probably cooler in there up off the ground, with some bonus moisture.”

The snake was captured and released unharmed in a more suitable wilderness location, the company said.

Southwestern speckled rattlesnakes are found in a specific region of the Southwest that includes Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

The species can grow to four feet and “is notable for its extreme color variation, matching the color and pattern of the mountain on which it lives,” Rattlesnake Solutions reports.

This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 12:19 PM with the headline "Can you find the rattlesnake in this Arizona photo? A lot of people don’t see it."