Posted on 05/09/2009 5:27:52 PM PDT by humblegunner
This afternoon I happened to look out the back and saw something
black and long in the middle of the yard. I just mowed yesterday
so I knew the yard was free of sticks and such.
Turns out it was a big black snake!
He isn't a rattler, does not look loke a water moccasin or a black snake.
What the heck kind of snake is he? He has the triangular head which
means he is a bad one, but I can't place his breed.
Anyway, photography being as dangerous as it is, he got wrecked up some
which is just as well. He might have bitten one of the animals.
So who knows any herpetology?
Could very well be, but still a beautiful snake.
LOL!
That is definitely a Cotton Mouth. They have a pretty nasty bite but are good for getting rid of mice.
Snake-free St. Augustine.
If you still have it around, take some close up shots of it, particularly around the head and mouth.
It's gone now.
Besides, the head got mashed up pretty good.
The black body and white marking on the side and underneath the head.
Native to the south including Houston.
You don’t know much about snakes, do you?
Is the underside of the TX Indigo light-colored?
HG: can you make out some fangs in the wreckage?
PS use chopsticks or wooden skewers for the autopsy.
Of course you’ll have the decency to send that snake out for DNA testing so we can put this controversy to bed?
Still looks like a Blacksnake to me... comes in two varieties here in Bama... The Racer which will run like heck from ya, this thing boogies. The other is the Black Rat Snake, it tends to remain motionless especially when in a tree or something (I always have seen them around fence posts in the woods)...
As a youth, mom was sunbathing in the backyard on a quilt. I heard her scream, the whole north side of town heard her scream. One of those black racers ran over her and boogied away as fast as he could. Shook her up almost as bad as that lizard I lost in her car I captured somewhere in Texas that attacked her little toe while she was driving to work a few weeks after I lost it. I got beat pretty bad over that one.
That is the sure way to tell. If there are fangs and a white mouth then yes you have a Cottonmouth. No fangs just a plate then some form of black snake. From what I've heard they are very agressive. One guy who used to post here named Sneakypete told me the best thing to keep snakes away was get cats. It makes sense as they compete for the same food and a cat is quicker in a fight. I used to have a lot of cats and no snakes. The cats died out and Copperheads showed up.
Water Moccasin/Cotton Mouth
I saw the fangs quite clearly before the poor beautiful harmless thing died of natural causes.
May I just add, you’re doing a great service for the Texas Chamber of Commerce. I’m sure everyone can hardly wait to travel there to check out your wonderful variety of poisonous snakes! :o!
Cottonmouth, AKA Water Moccasin.
By "natural", you mean the acute case of "shovel poisoning" that befell the snake?
That was a water moccasin. We used to see them quite often at DCS. We left the dead ones lying around as a warning to the live ones, haven’t seen on in years so the warnings must have worked.
humblegunner, Notice the body difference? The chunky body of the Cottonmouth on the bottom. Look at the tail also. See how the bottom one is blunt and goes down real quick? The bottom snake is the same body diameter but much shorter in length.
After I got close to him and poked at him he started to take off
and he wasn't going much quicker than walking speed.
Like Eaker said, I run like a gorilla and never would have caught a high-octane racing snake.
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