Wow! Amazing photos! I stepped on one of those, about same size, near the tippy end of his tail long ago in Cambodia. Luckily, he was as scared of me as I was of him. He took off one way, and I the other. They are awesome snakes. Thanks for posting!
I stepped on a rattler’s tail the same way out on White Sands missile range. No rattle till I stepped on him. Small buggy-whip size thing a couple of feet long, about as thick as a thumb. I let out a girl sounding noise I didn’t know I could even make, launched straight up till the soles of my boots were about 3 feet in the air, then somehow flew about 4 feet sideways.
I didn’t get bit by some miracle.
A couple years ago I was hiking. Most rattlers slither away quickly.
I was going down hill on hot day, and there was a huge rattler all coiled up on the trailing, spitting his tongue at me aggressively. I had never seen one do that. I did not go near him.
Had read many decades ago, that they were one of the few creatures that would pursue humans.
Weird, because it is not like they can eat us.