May 15 (UPI) -- Rattlesnake wranglers in Arizona shared a photo of a "weird" snake they came across in the backyard of a Scottsdale home.
Rattlesnake Solutions posted photos to social media showing what appears to be a western diamondback rattlesnake with a leopard-like color pattern. The snake's bright white tail base with black spots is "the only normal thing about it," the business said.
Western diamondbacks normally have diamond-shaped patterns on their bodies, but Rattlesnake Solutions said leopard-like pattern is "weird."
"In the many thousands of diamondbacks we've seen over the years, this is a first," the post said.
The cause was said to be likely a "big pattern mutation."
"The area it was in rules out hybridization possibilities with most species ... not that there's anything morphologically that indicates that," the post said. "Of all the possibilities, it's likely it's just a funky-looking diamondback."
The business said the snake, which some commenters on the post speculated to be dead, was captured alive and "healthy."
