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Nerodia sipedon
The Northern water snake is a large, nonvenomous, well-known snake in the Colubridae family that is native to North America. They are active during the day and at night. They are most often seen basking on rocks, stumps, or brush. During the day, they hunt among plants at the water's edge, looking for small fish, frogs, worms, leeches, crayfish, salamanders, small birds and mammals. At night, they concentrate on minnows and other small fish sleeping in shallow water. The Northern water snake can grow up to 4.4' long. They can be brown, gray, reddish, or brownish-black. They have dark crossbands on their necks and dark stripes and blotches on the rest of their bodies, often leading to misidentification as cottonmouths or copperheads by novices. They darken as they age. Some will become almost completely black. The belly of this snake also varies in color. It can be white, yellow, or gray. Usually it also has reddish or black crescents. Northern water snakes mate from April through June. They are ovoviviparous (live-bearers), which means they do not lay eggs like many other snakes. Instead, the mother carries the eggs inside her body and gives birth to free living young, each one 7.5–9.1" long. A female may have as many as thirty young at a time. They are born between August and October. Mothers do not care for their young; as soon as they are born, they are on their own. Northern water snakes have many predators, including birds, raccoons, opossums, foxes, snapping turtles, and other snakes. They defend themselves vigorously when they are threatened. If they are picked up by an animal, or person, they will bite repeatedly, as well as release excrement and musk. Their saliva contains a mild anticoagulant, which can cause the bite to bleed more but poses little risk to humans. Northern water snakes often share winter dens with copperheads and black rat snakes. They live near lakes, ponds, marshes, rivers, and canals; just about anywhere there is freshwater.
Burgess Falls, Tennessee.
16 Comments
Hi April! This was taken at Burgess Falls in Tennessee.
Was this taken at cane creek park? There a ton of these there.
Thanks Janson! It was a very lucky find - just hanging out by the trail & it didn't move an inch even when I had a lens 6" from its head!
Lisa Powers has confirmed this is a Nerodia sipedon.
Gracias harsuame!
Thanks Scott & Aaron! I've been checking out the species list for TN & the closest in appearance I could find is Nerodia sipedon pleuralis http://www.herpetology.us/tnherps/midlan...
I will ask Lisa Power's to take a look too as she is the TN state herpetologist.
Hermosas series
@Goody, so are you thinking Nerodia erythrogaster?
S Frazier is correct with Nerodia, but I'm leaning against N. sipedon due to what I can see of the belly in photo #4. The belly looks to have no pattern on it, and the northern watersnake has pretty distinct markings on the underside. Also, f.sherberger is correct with the pupil comment. Round pupils immediately remove this snake from the pit viper group.
Looks like a Nerodia, like you said, maybe the northern water snake, N. sipedon e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Northe...
Thanks Atul!
Super series!
Thanks Gerardo!
Thanks for confirming that for me f.sherberger! I was pretty sure it wasn't as the head shape looked wrong to me.
Not a copperhead. Copperheads have the dark blotches narrow on the top and wider on the sides - sort of like 'saddle bags'. Plus, the pupils are vertical in pit vipers.
Grate series Karen!