The Aruba Island rattlesnake belongs to the family of vipers, Viperidae. Pit vipers together form the subfamily Crotalinae.
Males tend to be larger than females.
Reproduction Arubas become sexually mature at about 3 years of age. If she is receptive, she opens her cloaca, and lets him insert one of his paired copulatory organs, called hemipenes. Rattlesnakes may mate for several hours at a time. About four months after mating, the female gives live birth to a litter of five to seven babies, although one Woodland Park Zoo Aruba produced a litter of 12. Young snakes are independent from birth, and begin looking for food after they shed their skins for the first time, a few days after they are born.