[4] M. euryxanthus is found in arid and semiarid regions in numerous habitats, both on plains and on lower mountain slopes, from sea level to 5,800 ft (1,800 m).

[8] When startled, frightened, or threatened, M. euryxanthus will hide its head under its body and raise and tightly curl its tail.

While in this posture, it will "fart": snakes do not have an anal cavity in the sense that humans and most mammals do, but rather a tract that allows for both disposal of waste and for laying of eggs in females.

Instead, it will forcibly and noisily emit gas from its cloaca, a behavior known as "cloacal popping", and predictably this phenomenon has a very unpleasant smell.

Isolated populations are also found in the Chocolate Mountains, La Paz County, western Arizona and on Tiburón Island in the Gulf of California.