As long as we’re mentioning snakes, I found this one today in a hollow tree while hiking with my kids in a local national forest. There’s a “geocache” in an ammo box in that tree and I always pull it out to see if anyone’s added anything. The snake was behind the ammo box, ready to strike. I reached in with a stick and pulled Mr. Snake out to get a better look at him. Still a little cool, so he wasn’t too aggressive, but he definitely didn’t appreciate being disturbed. Extra points if someone else
ID’s him.
You are a brave outdoors man. How does that rhyme go? Stripes something or other, run away. Never could remember it so I just run away. Looks like one that crawled out from under my car once in Florida when I was washing the car. Big and black is all I know.
Ah, Google: red touching black, safe for Jack. Red touching yellow, kill a fellow’. Just coral snakes though.
Western cottonmouth?
I’m gonna say a black rat snake.
But aren’t they an invasive species . . . some kind of python, that is now becoming the apex predator, displacing ALL other wildlife?
Pythons and boa constrictors are invasive species. If anacondas are there, they are also invaders. These snakes were held at a warehouse in Miami whe a hurricane blew through. The warehouse was severely damaged, and many of the snakes escaped. Some made it to the Everglades and now they are eating their way to resident status. Other snakes, like moccasin, rattlesnake, coral, copperhead, and indigo are long time Florida residents. I’m sure there are other, nonpoisonous snakes that have lived there like forever, too. The indigo is not poisonous, btw, but it can be quite large.
Correct! On the cottonmouth part at least. I’m in Mississippi, so I’m not sure about the western part. Not sure what the proper name is. People just call them cottonmouths or “water moccasin” around here. No idea what the moccasin part refers to. They live around water, but they don’t resemble a Native American traditional shoe all that much, to my eyes, anyway.
I’m not all that brave, Bing. It was a long stick! Definitely not one of those guys who picks up a snake like that or touches it by hand. One slip, things could get ugly. And I’ve been known to slip! A 3 foot stick is a better bet for me.
Western means west of Georgia. I know you live in Mississippi and I picked the one that lives there.
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It looks like the cottonmouths that I have seen here in Mississippi also. The fading mottled skin pattern and the small tip of the tail are definitely indicative of the cottonmouth/water moccasin.
In the Washington DC metro area there is NO such thing as a “relaxing drive home”. Or even a relaxing drive to work. As a matter of fact I don’t think there is any form of relaxing drive here, between 5AM-9PM pretty much 7 days a week.
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