How to tell if a rattlesnake picture was taken in the wild or not

You can´t always tell whether a rattlesnake was photographed or filmed in the wild or in captivity, but there is one dead giveaway that is a pretty strong clue that the snake is a long term captive specimen and probably somebody´s pet. If the snake has a very long string of rattles (more than 7 or 8), chances are good that this snake lives a cushy captive life in a cage. Snakes in the wild break rattles all the time while wandering over natural obstacles. There are exceptions, and rattlesnakes have been found in the wild with very long strings indeed. But it´s a lot more common and easy for a captive rattler to grow a tail of prodigious length.