Canebrakes are usually gray and may even have a pink hue and a pinkish, yellow, orange, or brown stripe running the length of the back. Timber rattlers are typically more brown or yellowish and may even be black. These rattlesnakes hibernate during cold weather.

Canebrakes range from the northernmost portion of Florida and west central U.S. to Texas. They inhabit lowland areas such as edges of marshes and swamps, cane thickets, wooded hillsides, heavy timber, and dead tree hollows.

Timber rattlesnakes live in a variety of habitats, including mountainous or hilly forests, hardwood or pine forests, swamps and river floodplains, lowland cane thickets, and agricultural fields. Generally, those found in the western and higher altitude parts of its range are called timber rattlers.

This snake is considered a generalist, which means that it isn’t too picky about its habitat. It can be found living in deserts, grassy plains, forests, rocky hillsides and areas along the coast. It lives in elevations from below sea level up to 6500 feet (2000m).

Mexico, Central America, and South America are also homes to rattlesnakes. They live in a variety of habitats, including forest, grasslands, scrub brush, swamps, and deserts, and they are also capable swimmers.

In the northern portion of their range, they are referred to as timber rattlesnakes and in the southern portion of the range they are often called canebrake rattlesnakes. Both names refer to the same species, although there are color differences that vary latitudinally.

(Timber rattlesnakes give birth to live young.) Basking sites are typically near protective cover, including patches of dense vegetation and fallen woody debris. In winter, rattlesnakes hibernate in dens and crevices among rocks; individuals return to the same den site each year.

Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes are endemic to the southeastern United States. They are found in the pinelands of Florida, the coastal plains of North Carolina and southern Mississippi through eastern Louisiana. They prefer scrublands, coastal forests, barrier islands and pine and wiregrass flatwoods.

Rattlesnakes are large, venomous snakes that are found throughout North and South America. The greatest concentration of them is in the Southwestern United States and in Northern Mexico. Arizona is home to 13 species of rattler, more than any other state.

Most species live near open, rocky areas. Rocks offer them cover from predators, plentiful prey (e.g. rodents, lizards, insects, etc. that live amidst the rocks), and open basking areas. However, rattlesnakes can also be found in a wide variety of other habitats including prairies, marshes, deserts, and forests.