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Afternoon on the Loop Trail I spotted something in the distance; in binoculars, it was revealed to be a dead California Ground Squirrel. On May 5th, in almost exactly the same location, I observed a conflict between a San Diego Gopher Snake and a California Ground Squirrel, documented here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/213886336

Because of that earlier observation, I approached slowly and noticed there were snake tracks in the dirt to the left and to the right of the ground squirrel. I waited. After about a minute movement in the weeds along the northern edge of the trail, which soon revealed itself as a Southern Pacific Rattlesnake. The snake sampled the air with its tongue and made its way back to the California Ground Squirrel.

Initially it tried to get its head around the squirrel; after re-adjusting a couple of times, it chose to drag the squirrel into the weeds on the north side of the trail.

"When beginning our hike my friend Danny and I saw a rattle under a tree. I took a couple of photos. It still alive, not rattling but it would open its mouth and move (pretty awesome).

"On our way back (about 45 min later) from the hike we decided to look under the same tree the rattle was in to get better pictures. We found it but discovered it had been pulled into some nearby bushes by a California Snake ! It was now eating the rattle as its dinner."

• Jessica Medrano

Observation and photos by Jessica Medrano, sent to rascals@nhm.org.

Southern Pacific Rattlesnake observation by Jessica Medrano can be found here: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1501879

Observation and photos sent to me by a neighbor, Y. Jin.

I questioned further and received the additional photos and following explanation. What's neat, too, is that the Elgaria has its tail in the first photos, but then at some point, dropped the tail, and the snake also ate the drop tail once it was done with the Elgaria.

"And YES the snake won, but it took some time since the lizard did indeed bite the snake as well! Also after the snake finally swallowed the lizard, it ate the lizard's tail which had fallen off as well."