Rattlesnakes are the most serious hazard in the desert among venomous animals, and despite all the publicity, a small number of people still die from snakebite every year in Arizona.
There's a simple rule here too: keep your distance! A big rattler has a long strike, and its easy to be careless about this if you're trying to take the photograph of a life time!). And by the way: the claim that rattlers always rattle before they strike is nonsense!
