WHAT IS IT ? ? ?

[dh50]

So, I'm pouring food into a feral cat's food dish at our woods' edge.  Suddenly, I see this guy next to the dish looking up at me as though chow is for him.  It's just inches from my hand when I spot it.  I 'GO GIRLY' and ruin the bugger's day.  But what is it?

[attachment id="755" thumbnail="1"]It was about 12 inches long.  [attachment id="756" thumbnail="1"]      [attachment id="758" thumbnail="1"]  ....even smiled for the camera! 

[shovelhead]

It's Johnny no arms. Kind of hard to tell but in picture 3 are those fangs?  I'm leaning juvenile copperhead. A dead one.

[jerrybeaird]

Might be baby copperhead...one like that bit my Motherinlaw a few years back at my property.  The babies empty all of their venom out on the first bite.

[djsamuel]

Looks like a cottonmouth.  Where I live in Central Florida (Clermont) we've had several, along with quite a few pygmy rattlesnakes, diamondbacks, and coral snakes.

Look at these pictures:

http://www.floridabackyardsnakes.com/florida--eastern-cottonmout.html


Cottonmouths are extremely aggressive; even rearing up and hissing at times.

[shovelhead]

[quote source="/post/9609/thread" timestamp="1429532776" author="@djsamuel"]Looks like a cottonmouth.  Where I live in Central Florida (Clermont) we've had several, along with quite a few pygmy rattlesnakes, diamondbacks, and coral snakes.

Look at these pictures:

http://www.floridabackyardsnakes.com/florida--eastern-cottonmout.html


Cottonmouths are extremely aggressive; even rearing up and hissing at times.[/quote]You very well could be right Doug.  I think GW is in middle FL.  So that could be a Cottonmouth .  The ones I see in GA swamps have very little markings
 usually a dark almost black body but fat around the length until the tail area and they get "stubby".

[admin]

The head looks about right for a cottonmouth, but like @shovelhead, the ones I have seen are basically black or dark brown and solid in color. The first this I noticed in the picture was how fat it looked as well, which if memory serves is another pointer towards cottonmouth.

[pinstriper]

[quote source="/post/9609/thread" author="@djsamuel" timestamp="1429532776"]Looks like a cottonmouth.  Where I live in Central Florida (Clermont) we've had several, along with quite a few pygmy rattlesnakes, diamondbacks, and coral snakes.

Look at these pictures:

http://www.floridabackyardsnakes.com/florida--eastern-cottonmout.html


Cottonmouths are extremely aggressive; even rearing up and hissing at times.[/quote][p]Note to self: Stay the hell out of Central Florida.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Done.
[/p]

[shovelhead]

I hate snakes as most humans do... I have a funny snake story and it was a Cottonmouth.  My son made a hat band out of it... I cant repeat the
whole story on the forum... Rated "R"

[whoofit]

Doesn't look to be harmful to me now that it is dead and I'm 1000 miles away.

[solds88]

When I was a kid there was a saying to help identify poisonous snakes. "It he has a round eye he's a good guy, if he has a cat's eye you might die" It's a lot easier than memorizing colors and patterns. However, I would never recommend getting up close and personal, eye to eye, as it could really ruin your entire day.

[dh50]

[quote timestamp="1429539936" author="@pinstriper" source="/post/9615/thread"][quote source="/post/9609/thread" timestamp="1429532776" author="@djsamuel"][/quote][p]Note to self: Stay the hell out of Central Florida.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Done.
[/p][/quote][p]Aw, Bunky, don't be like that.   [/p][p]
[/p][p]
[/p][p]

[oar]

Decided to check out other threads in this forum...

NOPE!

Places to visit:

[strike]Oregon[/strike]
[strike]Central Florida[/strike]


 

[hdrehder]

Here's one that we met in Caprock Canyon last Thursday, a Diamond Back... not sure if Eastern or Western.  About three feet or a little more.

Click to enlarge and you can see tail in the grasses.
[attachment id="764" thumbnail="1"]

On this photo, you can see the black forked tongue if you look close.
[attachment id="765" thumbnail="1"]

At Inks Lake in the fall, we were trail running with our terrier.  She passed the Diamondback before we saw it coiled half way on the trail.  It was bigger than the one we saw last week.  How the dog who passed the snake twice, second time trying to get back to us, didn't get bitten... a Godsend.  It didn't rattle and move off the trail until I tried to get a better look at it.  Same case with the one in Caprock.  Needless to say, our two dogs that camp with us got the rattlesnake vaccine after that first encounter.

I like snakes (spiders are what get me wiggy).  I taught with them when younger... rat snakes, hognose, kings... but the poisonous ones are super scary.  

[dh50]

It's Johnny no arms. Kind of hard to tell but in picture 3 are those fangs?  I'm leaning juvenile copperhead. A dead one.

Yes, 'Johnny no arms' has fangs. (Where did you find the name 'Johnny no arms'?)  BTW, Shovelhead, your juvenile copperhead suggestion got me thinking....hmm, ours doesn't fit Florida pygmy snake description, nor juvenile copperhead in pattern or tail rattle.  I then remembered that cottonmouths are rumored to have color and pattern when juvenile.  But since we have only encountered mature cottonmouths who were always solidly dark in color, much longer and thicker, I didn't recognize yesterday's visitor to be one.  Your mention of 'juvenile' prompted a search which did confirm that our dearly departed friend indeed was a very juvenile cottonmouth.  Also learned that the cottonmouth has the least potent venom of all vipers and their purported 'aggressive' temperment is without basis.  The rattlesnake takes the prize for having the most potent venom along with a nasty disposition and aggressive nature.  There's a fellow in Central Florida who maintains that mocassins make good pets, as far as snakes go!  Says they are smart and develop a personality when in captivity.  Not so with rattlers.  I'll take his word on this.

We should plan a LL Rattler Rally and meet at one of several rattlesnake round-ups in Texas next Spring!  Hubby says it's exciting and rattlesnake is tasty!

http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/snakes/cottonmouth.shtml

[dh50]

[quote timestamp="1429565547" author="@oar" source="/post/9655/thread"]Decided to check out other threads in this forum...

NOPE!

Places to visit:

[strike]Oregon[/strike]
[strike]Central Florida[/strike]


 [/quote]And where do you live, Mr. Oar?  Hmmmm?