Rattlesnake gets up close and personal with trail camera

Rattlesnake Ready for Its Closeup at Arizona Trail Camera

A trail camera in the Phoenix Mountains, Arizona, was visited by a rattlesnake ready for its close up earlier this year. (Credit: Steven Tippett via Storyful)

A rattlesnake couldn’t get any closer to a trail camera when it slithered its way to a water bowl in Phoenix Mountains, Arizona, over the summer.

Steve Tippett recently posted the video to Facebook on November 20.

He said his "kind-hearted son" had put out a bowl of water by a den area during the height of drought season, and caught on camera a "couple of southwestern speckled rattlesnakes and a western diamondback" as they came for a drink.

According to The National Wildlife Federation, rattlesnakes "are highly specialized, venomous reptiles with large bodies and triangle-shaped heads." The federation said it’s one of the most iconic groups on North American snakes due to the "rattle" at the tip of the trail.

The federation said rattlesnakes are found in almost every part of the continental United States but are common in the southwest.

According to the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County, each year, around 7,000–8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes in the U.S.— a fraction of the country’s total population.

This story was reported from Los Angeles.