We were on the shore of Lake Eufaula in Eastern Oklahoma when this snake swam parallel to the shore for a while and then slithered on shore and proceeded to move up the beach, up the shale cliff and into the woods. He was at least 3 feet long and not the least aggressive. Does anyone know what he is?
another picture....
Last one. He is climbing up towards the woods.
Dunno, but he sure is pretty :-)
LOL My thoughts exactly!
My thoughts were ALMOST like yours,.....I dunno, but he sure is scarry! :)
I think that may be a Diamondback Water Snake...they look a lot like the Rattlesnake by the same name, but they are of course, non venomnous.
That's the closest I found Melva, but was not sure. And he was very pretty and very fascinating. We just gave him plenty of room and watched him move about 20 to 30 feet up into the woods.
yep - cant get a good look at its head but sure looks like a dback watersnake to me. The only other thing it could be is possibly a hog nose. Pretty snake - thanks for watching it, and letting it be. Most snakes are completely harmless and most are very beneficial.
The head color says it is a bull snake. They hang around water and eat muskrats. I took this ones picture in Southwest Oklahoma.
good looking bull snake. I didnt think the head looked right on the other photos for a bull snake but now that I look at the second photo I think your right. For anyone reading this thread, if you ever want help to id a snake from a photo try to take a overall photo and a closeup of the head and tail. That helps so much in correctly identifying a snake.
Trois, what a first rate pic of the bull snake! Lovely snake :-)
-Julie
Most of the time I have been asked to ID a snake, the body has no head or a very mangled head.
Thanks, Julie.
Thats unfortunate trois. Almost every snake is harmless if not mucked around with and most are beneficial to the environment they live in. If any animals should be hated, it's the introduced animals that are not supposed to be there that are destroying ecosystems such as feral pigs and cats. Irrational fears cause people to do some strange things though. Good pictures sweezel - especially the last one where he is crawling back to the woods. Thanks for the great pictures and thanks for admiring, taking some film and leaving it be.
Long ago, when I was in Highschool, I made a good bit of my spending money by catching and selling Bullsnakes to farmers. Almost all farmers wanted Bullsnakes in their barns for rodent control. My father was an exception. Another of my little projects was cleaning out dug wells. There were almost always Bullsnakes, and a few others, trapped in the wells. I placed them in a sack, as most were docile and weak from lack of food. They quickly recovered when places in a rodent infested barn.
What if you are like infested w/snakes though? I don't know what kind of snakes these are that we have, their black w/yellow and they seem to multiple like rabbits, more every year. We do have a creek behind our house but I mean they are everywhere and seem quite scarey, they hiss too. Help! Denise
Denise - you live in Illinois - A poisenous snake would be extremely rare for you. What you have could be any number of non poisenous snakes that are no more scary than a frog. I can already tell that trois knows as much if not more about snakes/herpitology than I do so if you get a good photo of the snake, head and tail I am sure one of us could identify it for you to put your mind at ease. A lot of snakes in Illinois eat rodents - if you have a healthy population of snakes that eat rodents then you have a healthy population of rodents in order for the snakes to be there. Take away the snakes and you will have rodents all over you. That said - since these live near a creek, they are more likely feeding on frogs, etc. Snakes are just like any other wild animal - not scary unless you corner it, try to pick it up, etc. Just watch it like you would a racoon but dont go stick your finger in its face and you will be just fine.
If you walk up to a Bullsnake, A Hognosed snake, or any of several others, They will coil, hiss, and otherwise look threatning. When they coil stop and take pictures.
The one in the photo was about 3 feet away. Copperheads and Rattlesnakes are easy to visually ID. Other than that, you are safe. Closeups of the heads is the best way for ID. They will eat frogs, crayfish, and rodents, their favorites. Far more beneficial than otherwise, and very interesting when watched.
Black with Yellow sounds like some kind of Garter Snake, but I have never heard one hiss.
Probably a hog nose or a water snake. - got lots of toads around that creek? If you do, it might be a hog nose. Some species of hog nose eat pretty much nothing but toads. They will hiss and flatten their necks like a cobra to attempt to scare ya when approached but if that dont work, they will flip onto thier bellies, stick out their tongues and play dead. Its really something to see but does stress the snake so dont make em do it much. Most garters have "stripes" If they are hog nose snakes and you are seeing them on a regular basis you should feel lucky - they are very shy snakes in general and very interesting to watch root around with that nose of thiers. Get us a picture so we can tell ya what you got. One other thing - are you seeing a lot of snakes all at once during certain times of the year and then you dont see em much anymore? perhaps see a lot for about a week or so and then not so much anymore right around late spring and early fall?
Well, it does look like the bull snake. I did not know they could swim so well.
I knew it was not a poisoness snake and he did not seem scared of us (no hissing even). I kept leading my friend closer and probably got within about 6 or 7 feet of him. The picture my husband took of us shows my friend behind me and me taking steps closer while talking to her. :) She had probably just said "Look, it's got a pointed face, he could be poisoness" While I was saying "Nope, he's not a rattler, cottonmouth, or copperhead, so he's not. Isn't he pretty." LOL I would share the picture, but no one needs to see us in our bathing suits.
Here is the best picture of it's head I could get. My husband had the camera and took pictures from farther away on the other side of him.
Bull snake for sure. Almost all snakes swim easily. Cottonmouths spend more time out on solid ground than in the water. I have seen a number of Rattlers swimming, and even caught one on a large minnow once. I allowed him to get himself off the hook, which he did in about 2 minutes.
Thanks for identifying him for me. He was pretty cool to see.
But catching the rattler on the fishing pole.. Yikes!
Yep, good call on that long distance picture earlier Trois - that is most definately a good looking bull snake.
Water snakes dont "live" in the water, they have just adapted to feeding on pond life. Frogs, fish, etc. Granted, they do spend a lot of time swimming around and use submerging as an escape vehicle but the only true "full time" water snakes are sea snakes and even they will get out on exposed coral reefs at times.
I grew up in Illinois and never saw a poisonous snake in the wild until moving down to MS. Believe me - even those that do not know snakes can not miss a poisonous snake when you see its head. They just have a "vibe" about them that is unmistakeable. They are also awesome to observe but just like any other creature you need to give them space. I will post a photo of a young copperhead I had to remove from my dogs pen this year so you will see what I mean. Beautiful snake but the head and eyes just scream "leave me the heck alone".
Snakes do bite but they really do not want to. I once actually stepped on a cottonmouth by accident, looked down and it had its mouth open warning me to get off of it, had its head bent back all the way to the top of its head hitting the ground trying to give me room to leave it alone before striking. It was funny afterwards when I tried to think what was on its mind. Probably like - "hey idiot - dont you see me warning you that I might bite your dumb @$&! Get off me!" After I removed my foot he slipped away with one backward look and flick of his tongue as if to communicate "what a moron!" That is a true story. Now dont go get close to cottonmouths because of that story though - most are very aggressive during certain times of the year and will readily strike if you step, or otherwise molest them. Leave em alone and you have absolutely nothing to worry about though.
The one that bit me didn't even warn me. Just stuck a couple of fangs in my forearm. At least he didn't inject any venom. It worked. I left. I presume he left.
I was nervious but since I had no swelling and the pain had mostly gone, after walking 800 feet back to the house, I felt lucky. I had instantly squeezed the blood out of the wound and cleaned it with alcohol back at the house. I had to go to the Dr. anyway the next day. She was more upset than I was.
Cottonmouths get very aggressive when they get to about 3 feet long.
Your a lucky person Trois - Cottonmouths are one of the few venemous snakes that almost always injects venom when it makes a defensive strike and thier venom is nasty stuff. A hit on the arm or hand can result in the loss of a limb with a cottonmouth bite. Ok, I have to ask. Was you handling that snake? tsk, tsk. ;-) Im guilty too. I handled the copperhead I found in my dogs pen last summer - but copperhead bites are nothing compared to a cottonmouth. lol I will try to get a photo on here soon.
I was picking something up at the edge of tall grass. I never touched it, it touched me. I have caught small ones to show DW what they look like, then released.
It's the one you don't see that gets you.
One killed my big Red Dog. a few years ago. Bit him on the tongue. Died quickly.
Sorry to hear that Trois. Most dogs I have known survived thier bites. Something about dogs that allows them to shake off the venom. Might be due to the fact he was hit in the tongue. My lab got hit on the leg by an unknown venomous snake. Large puncture wounds and large spread between fangs - never saw the snake but from the size of the bite me and the vet guessed either Timber rattler or Cottonmouth. Dry area, no water at all so no frogs, Im guessing it was a rattlesnake, was too big to be a copperhead and those are the only three venomous snakes we have with any real numbers here. His leg swelled badly but he was fine the next day after some shots to control the swelling. Very sorry to hear about your dog.
A swollen tongue suffocated old Red. The Vet was surprised by the speed of death. He was already dead by than.
Really sad - I absolutely love dogs. If I could save them all I would but I am a realist. I hope between the two of us that we can help others on here understand that not all snakes should be killed. I am sure I will see you in another thread soon. Take care
I will post a few in this forum soon.
DW with gun after being chased off her viewing platform 3 times by a large Cottonmouth. She likes them OK, but not in her lap.
She shot the snake.
They usually go away in a day or two, but once they decide it's their territory. they stay.
Oh Trois, that's so terrible about your dog!
My beagle was bitten in the side by what we think was a small copperhead, back 3-4 yrs ago. The poor guy swelled, on that side, from his neck down to the tip of his toes. It must have taken 2 weeks for all of the swelling to go away. The vets gave him prednisone (I think) antibiotics & pain med, he got over it, but sure was in a whole lot of pain for a few days. We never actually saw the snake, but we have copperheads on our farm.
Usually, at least once a year, I have to remove a very large, 5'+ rat snake (at least that's what the neighbor calls them) from my screened porch. The people at work thought I was nuts when I told them about it the first time. I usually take them down to the barn. The first one I took away, by the time I had gotten to the barn, he had coiled around my arm. I have to admit, it was a tad unnerving! After that, I learned to support the body with a broom handle. The also smell something awful when they are disturbed and it's hard to get the smell off of my skin.
This message was edited Jun 3, 2005 10:59 PM
We had only had Red Dog for a couple of weeks. Adopted from the pound. He was a city dog, and just loved being out in the country.
He didn't know to stay away from snakes.
I have noticed that some water snakes when excited smell like skunks. I have never noticed any other smelling bad.
Thankyou so much slgrowers, we will try to get a pic, appreciate the info. definitely makes sense. I definitely think we have that vole thing as well due to we have those holes and these voles are considered rodents as well? Thanks, Denise
The Voles here look like very fat rats.
