Snake pics

Md 25v

Md 25v

Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
1,409
Hey guys. I'm a biologist that specializes in Herpetology(study of reptiles and amphibians). This cold weather is driving me nuts. I really miss the field season and have been reminiscing over some of the studies I have been in as well as volunteered for. I was going over some pics from the last couple seasons and felt like sharing.
Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)
This female had a telemetry implant and was nice enough to let us follow her for a month or so.
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Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon)
Baby
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Adult
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Full belly
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Eastern hognose snake (Heterodon platirhinos)
They flatten out like a cobra as a defensive posture
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Eastern ringneck snake (Diadophis punctatus)
These guys are great for education groups because the never bite. This is as big as they get.
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Eastern garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)
These guys are always the first ones out, as early as February. They often breed when there is still snow on the ground. This is about half of an average size breeding ball. We were trying to determine the average ratio, M to F, of the breeding ball.
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And lets not forget our friendly eastern rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta). A construction company accidentally turned up a nest and one of the guys was kind enough to take the eggs to a wildlife rehab center that I volunteer for. I took them home and put them in one of my extra incubators and all but two of the eggs hatched and were released.
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Sorry about the long post guys, I just miss the warmer weather and felt like sharing.
 
awesome pics man...:thumbup: those are some cool snakes.. it's plenty warm over here in CA..

uumm.. that looks like your butt in the 5th. pic...:o
 
Looks like you are at a den, in the Copperhead pic.
Great pix. Thanks!
Snakes still need all the PR they can get. :thumbup:
Where are you located?
Rolf
 
Great pics thanks for sharing. I to am ready for the cold to leave and the warmer wheather to come back. I love looking for the slithery critters hear on the farm LOL

Bryan
 
Great pics. I love snakes (from a distance!) and it's always cool to spot them out on hikes.
 
Great post and pics. I have a question about copperheads. I live in eastern Pennsylvania. Are copperheads aggressive? I can't count the number of times I've been fishing and had copperheads deliberately come right towards me. It almost seems they are being territorial. The rattle snakes around here will leave you alone if you leave them alone...but the copperheads seem to seek out confrontation.
 
AWESOME!!!!

You have a great job. Ive been into reptiles since I was very small. Good stuff bro!!
 
Neat pictures. I have always been fascinated wit snakes.. Now, just go out and bother a giant Anaconda :D
 
Right on , Now I have some one I ask question about my tortoise's :D

I wish I could work with herps all day, at one time I had 5 snakes(Ball python, Borneo Short tail python, rough green,and two corns) , 3 lizards(golden gekos 1,1 and a mali uromastx) , 4 fire belly toads , a horned toad(pac-man) and three Russian tortoise's 2,1 hopeing to get some eggs this spring

since I have move we have a no snakes/no crickets rule so I am down to the tort's and a Mali-uromastx.

you sir have my dream job..

thanks for the pics
jimi
 
Love snakes... I have a few spots that I goto that have OODLES of them. your pics are awesome...Really great stuff

I don't have many good pics

but here's a really large black rat snake slithering away from me.
http://s550.photobucket.com/albums/ii403/rescueriley/?action=view&current=Hiking0528083.jpg

here ia a pair of breeding skinks
http://s550.photobucket.com/albums/ii403/rescueriley/?action=view&current=Hiking05280810.jpg

Here is me reaching into a thornbush to go after a large water snake...it didn't work out to well for me though
http://s550.photobucket.com/albums/ii403/rescueriley/?action=view&current=Hiking0528089.jpg
 
morrowj_98 said:
Great post and pics. I have a question about copperheads. I live in eastern Pennsylvania. Are copperheads aggressive? I can't count the number of times I've been fishing and had copperheads deliberately come right towards me. It almost seems they are being territorial. The rattle snakes around here will leave you alone if you leave them alone...but the copperheads seem to seek out confrontation.
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No, copperheads are NOT aggressive. They are venomous but their venom is not nearly as potent as people think. If a snake is in the water, it is most likely not a copperhead. You would be surprised how many people that "know their snakes" mis-identify other snakes for copperheads. Copperheads do swim, but not often. They will not bite unless picked up or stepped on. On rare occasion, we have had to collect them without our usual gear and have found over forty individuals, only a couple were in a bad mood and that was after they were handled.
 
I see the question of how dangerous copperheads really are come up a lot and most of the internet info is just plain wrong. The simple fact is that there has not been a single copperhead related fatality in the past fifty years and if you don't believe me just check with US fish and wildlife. Copperheads are more prevalent than any other venomous snake in the US and account for more than one third of native snake envenomations because people often try to handle them. To give you an idea of their actual venom potency and deliver this is how it is determined. We take the average amount of venom an adult snake is capable to deliver in a single bite and take the amount of venom it takes to kill 50 of 100 mice in 24 hours. Copperheads can deliver at most 40.0-70.2mg per bite. It take 10.9mg to produce a result of LD-50, (leathal dose at 50% in 24 hrs) which means that a copperhead is only able to deliver 5-6 times the venom it takes to have a 50% chance of killing a mouse. And this amount is only delivered by the largest females, most specimens only deliver two to three times what it takes to have a 50% chance of killing a mouse. Sorry for the technical answer but this is one of those things that really gets to me and most of the herpetology community.
 
Ironic...I have been wanting to tell someone about my experience and you posted this :D

I was at a local exotic pet store (it's called the Enclosure, but I don't know if they have a website or not), and you wouldn't believe the things they had there. They have everything from Alligators, Goliath Bird Eating Spiders, a really friendly Bengal Cat that meowed all the time (and now I want one btw), bearded dragons, along with a ton of other lizards that I had no idea what they were but were really cool none the less. Anyways, I reach the back of the store, and what is staring me in the face? A King Mother F'n Cobra! It's head was as big as my fist! They also had a green mamba and several other types of cobras, a Gaboon Viper, Eastern Brown, and Copperhead.

Anyways, I thought you might appreciate it. I'll see if i'm allowed to take pictures next time :thumbup:
 
morrowj_98 said:
Great post and pics. I have a question about copperheads. I live in eastern Pennsylvania. Are copperheads aggressive? I can't count the number of times I've been fishing and had copperheads deliberately come right towards me. It almost seems they are being territorial. The rattle snakes around here will leave you alone if you leave them alone...but the copperheads seem to seek out confrontation.
Click to expand...

Here in Ga we have copperheads, and LOTS of them! In my experience or run-ins with them they have been highly aggressive (not just curious). A friend of mine was horseback riding one day and there was a snake crossing the trail about 20-30 feet in front of us; as we waited for it to cross it made a 90 degree turn and came right down the trail towards us as we waited to identify it we figured out it was about a 16" copperhead. We turned around and bypassed the snake but as we went around the snake it altered its course so it would be heading back towards us, nothing exciting happened but that is an example of the basic nature of a copperhead down here. BTW I lived on the North Shore of Lake Ponchartrain in LA for many years and we had plenty of snakes (the first place I ever saw a pygmy rattler) and other reptiles but not even the cottonmouths would put that much effort into checking something out!

Most people around here just don't want to wait and see if the copperhead wants to play nice or not!

That is just my 2 cents.

Not trying to cast a bad light on them mind you, but you don't generally get bitten if you keep aware of your surroundings and realize that they could be around but if you do end up seeing one just go the other way and leave it alone if you can! There are definitely snakes here in GA whose venom is a lot worse than a copperheads and the ones I worry about are any of the rattlers big or small!
 
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Appreciate it, not hardly. Those kinds of stores are hell on native populations of reptiles. I'm not trying to change the direction of the thread but places like that always, no matter what they tell you, sell mostly wild caught reptiles with the exception of things like alligators which are easily farmed and sold by the hundred lot for $8-12 a piece.
 
Md 25v said:
Appreciate it, not hardly. Those kinds of stores are hell on native populations of reptiles. I'm not trying to change the direction of the thread but places like that always, no matter what they tell you, sell mostly wild caught reptiles with the exception of things like alligators which are easily farmed and sold by the hundred lot for $8-12 a piece.
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Alrighty then I won't take pictures...sorry
 
396vette said:
Most people around here just don't want to wait and see if the copperhead wants to play nice or not!
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Thats a big part of the problem. People that don't know anything about snake behavior are usually quick to kill them, and not just the venomous snakes. One of my favorite statistics is the identical correlation between the last thirty year decline in rodent eating snakes and the rampant increase in lyme disease and other mouse borne illnesses.
 
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