Snake Identification

Triquetra

Triquetra

Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
759
I thought someone here might be able to help me identify this snake. I would like to say that I was way out in the wilderness testing out my latest knife purchase but actually I was at the Tulsa Zoo in the Lowland recreation. I am curious if this is a water moccassin so that I will be prepared when I am out in the wilderness.

DSC04134.jpg
 
Is the snake dead?

A Moccasin's interior of it's mouth is White. Did it have that?
 
I'm certainly no expert and it's hard to tell from that pic but I'd likely give that one a wide berth. The shape of the head/neck area makes me think that it is one.
 
The thick body graduating abruptly at the tail ,and the pronounced poison pockets at the base of the head looks like our water moccasins
 
We don't have water mocs out here but we stay clear of anything with that spade-shaped head. In my neighborhood, that suggests it's venomous.

DancesWithKnives
 
Looks like a moccasin to me. There are a couple water snakes with vaguely diamond shaped heads, though. I don't recommend picking that one up.
 
it looks to me like it could be a plain ol' watersnake, there are several that mimic cottonmouths, some have even more arrow-shaped heads than the real thing. how were the pupils shaped? moccasins have cat-eyes, if it had round pupils it was harmless. the tail suggests it's a female, and possibly gravid.
 
otis williams said:
it looks to me like it could be a plain ol' watersnake, there are several that mimic cottonmouths, some have even more arrow-shaped heads than the real thing. how were the pupils shaped? moccasins have cat-eyes, if it had round pupils it was harmless. the tail suggests it's a female, and possibly gravid.
Click to expand...

I wasn't getting close enough to look at his eyes.
 
skybone said:
The thick body graduating abruptly at the tail ,and the pronounced poison pockets at the base of the head looks like our water moccasins
Click to expand...

I googled a little tonight and it said that moccasins are fat for their length with a broad diamond head whereas water snakes are long and thin with slender heads. If that's the case, this wasn't a water snake.
 
Brown-banded water snake. Non-poisonous. Commonly mistaken for water moccasin, which is a good thing, cause it keeps people from killin em.

Way to tell the difference bet BBWS and Moc is: Moc is JET BLACK on top. No brown.

And when in motion at a distance, the Moc's body will mostly be out of the water, while the BBWS's will be underwater with the head above.

The BBWS also has white inside the mouth, as do most snakes, so that doesn't mean anything (if you looked).

Nice pic.

Dave
 
There are two subspecies of cottonmouth mocasins....that one appears to
be neither.
Cottonmouth Mocasins do have white mouth interiors....other snakes have very pale pink
or very light blue. Cottonmouths also have white streaks on the side of their heads,
AND eliptical pupils (like a cat). Other forms of water snakes (all non-poisonous) have
round pupils.
Attempts at identification based on head shape tend to be very inacurate.

Audubon publishes a very good book on reptiles...lots of good color photos.
 
The brown banded watersnake looks a LOT like a moc, but I've never seen one that fat before. Also, the coloring looks very much like moccasins we get around here. My dad knows a lot about herpetology, so I sent him the pic. He says it's a moccasin.
 
Weather it's poisonous or not, I'd still give it a wide berth, especially if you're way out in the woods. A non-poisonous snake can still give a nasty bite that could become infected and make life a bit more interesting than you might like.
 
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