Name that snake.

poadeleted21

poadeleted21

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
12,332
just photographed this guy in SC near the Savannah River. Looks awfully big to be a rat snake.


attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    111.1 KB · Views: 320
That's Reggie! He must have climbed out of my Waco...
 
River is around average. I've seen some dark cottonmouths but this sucker was jet black. I think he's just a black rat snake who's been eating well. Though he would be the largest black snake I've ever seen.
 
Black racer snake? Looks like he's just flattened out warming up.
 
can u get a close-up of his head? I mean get right in there, I'd like to see his eyes, maybe his fangs if u can swing it.

:yikes:
 
looks similar to a variety fairly common in indiana called a "blacksnake". They tend to hide out in barns and under logs etc. Not something you often see cruisin across the lawn though it does happen. They eat lots of mice and other small rodents so we like them.

Frank
 
bartmc said:
just photographed this guy in SC near the Savannah River. Looks awfully big to be a rat snake.
Click to expand...
Black rat snakes can get pretty big, 6 feet and longer. It's very hard to tell from the picture if it's a pit viper - you'd need a close-up of the head.
 
Black racer is my bet, harmless little guys but quicker than all hell. He looks like he flattened himself out to pick up some more sun. Should have a light blue/white belly.

Cottonmouths aren't that perfectly colored and should be a mix of brown and black banding.
 
bartmc said:
just photographed this guy in SC near the Savannah River. Looks awfully big to be a rat snake.


attachment.php
Click to expand...

Around there it will either be a Rat Snake or Black Racer. I don't know anything that looks like that in your area that's venomous. Just another critter catcher is all.
 
Is kind of shaped like a cottonmouth, and they are known to vary greatly in their overall "darkness", but I've never seen one so solid black. Don't think it's a black rat snake and it definitely isn't a black racer. Could be a banded water snake, although again, a bit too dark. With some better imagery I think I can give you an accurate ID.

One thing is the odd way it is flattened out. Hognose snakes will do that, but they aren't typically black and probably not as long as the snake pictured.

Are the scales keeled or smooth?
 
Last edited:
BiffJ said:
looks similar to a variety fairly common in indiana called a "blacksnake". They tend to hide out in barns and under logs etc. Not something you often see cruisin across the lawn though it does happen. They eat lots of mice and other small rodents so we like them.

Frank
Click to expand...

When I was living on a horse farm in Michigan we LOVED having those big rat snakes around. It could be a bit of a scare when you lifted a hay bale and found one...but when you knew that they were there to keep the mice and rats away, you didn't mind so much!
 
We have a brown water snake in Florida that looks like a Cottonmouth except for that viper head. I would go with either brown water snake or Cottonmouth depending on the head shape which we can't see.

I know the Gray Rat Snake, the Yellow Rat Snake, and the Red Rat Snake. None of those is shaped like the picture of the snake ID request.

I have seen a bunch of Black Racers and that guy is fatter than any Black Racer I have seen.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, those brown water snakes are easy to mistake for cottonmouths. But they have pretty distinctive markings that this snake doesn't have. I grew up near Sebring and saw brown water snakes by the hundreds. I could never convince people that they weren't venomous.
 
write-stuff said:
Yeah, those brown water snakes are easy to mistake for cottonmouths. But they have pretty distinctive markings that this snake doesn't have. I grew up near Sebring and saw brown water snakes by the hundreds. I could never convince people that they weren't venomous.
Click to expand...

You are right, the brown water snake is pretty common! I live on Lake Jackson and see them regularly and leave them to enjoy life.
 
This is a Black Racer (heading for my yard at Mach 1).

06adabcf6828c349e1332818bc36e2b6.jpg



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Norman said:
Looks like a "Browning 12 gauge" to me. :dunno: Have I ever said I hate snakes? :mad2:
Click to expand...

Why? I'm always curious about why snakes are so disliked by so many people. They don't bark, they don't make a mess, they don't damage property, they go out of their way to avoid bothering you, and they help keep the rodents down. What more could you ask?

Other than the copperheads (fairly common around here) and timber rattlesnakes (pretty rare, but still occasionally encountered), I'm pretty happy to have snakes around. Even the copperheads I pretty much ignore unless they're living right where my guests or I are likely to step on them.

Even then, I trap and relocate the copperheads rather than kill them. You're really not supposed to move them; but considering that most people just shoot them (highly illegal), EnCon usually looks the other way when people relocate them (only slightly illegal). As long as you don't release them in a stupid place like a campsite or a trailhead, no C.O. or Ranger is likely to make an issue of it.

As for the snake in the picture, I have no idea. It doesn't look like anything I've seen around here. We have black racers, black king snakes, and ring neck snakes, but they're all less stocky. We also have some water snakes that are dark grey or black and stocky, but I've never seen one more than two or three feet long. So I'm stumped.

Rich
 
Last edited:
The original snake pictured is an Eastern Hognose. The melanistic or black phase. Totally harmless. The snake pictured a little later in the thread is a black ratsnake.

I'm sorta into snakes. I have a few snake videos as well as some Christen Eagle flying videos on my YouTube channel. One of my videos was used on Discovery Channel.

www.youtube.com/loub747
 
RJM62 said:
Why? I'm always curious about why snakes are so disliked by so many people.

Rich
Click to expand...

I have no idea Rich. It's always been (an Irrational?) fear of mine. My wife wanted a baby Reticulated Python. I told her she could have him but I'd be leaving. :smilewinkgrin: She opted to keep me instead. :lol:
 
Wow, you got that photo from pattern altitude?
Must be one heck of a camera
 
LouB747 said:
The original snake pictured is an Eastern Hognose. The melanistic or black phase. Totally harmless. The snake pictured a little later in the thread is a black ratsnake.

I'm sorta into snakes. I have a few snake videos as well as some Christen Eagle flying videos on my YouTube channel. One of my videos was used on Discovery Channel.

www.youtube.com/loub747
Click to expand...

Yes, what he said.
 
RJM62 said:
Why? I'm always curious about why snakes are so disliked by so many people. They don't bark, they don't make a mess, they don't damage property, they go of their way to avoid bothering you, and they help keep the rodents down. What more could you ask?

Other than the copperheads (fairly common around here) and timber rattlesnakes (pretty rare, but still occasionally encountered), I'm pretty happy to have snakes around. Even the copperheads I pretty much ignore unless they're living right where my guests or I are likely to step on them.

Even then, I trap and relocate the copperheads rather than kill them. You're really not supposed to move them; but considering that most people just shoot them (highly illegal), EnCon usually looks the other way when people relocate them (only slightly illegal). As long as you don't release them in a stupid place like a campsite or a trailhead, no C.O. or Ranger is likely to make an issue of it.

As for the snake in the picture, I have no idea. It doesn't look like anything I've seen around here. We have black racers, black king snakes, and ring neck snakes, but they're all less stocky. We also have some water snakes that are dark grey or black and stocky, but I've never seen one more than two or three feet long. So I'm stumped.

Rich
Click to expand...
I don't know how to explain an irrational fear of snakes. But I know I have been terrified of them all my life.
I have a memory burned in my brain from when I was about 3 years old. A friend of mine and I were playing in the yard, barefoot. All of a sudden, she started laughing. I went to see why and there was a black snake crawling over her foot. She thought it was funny. I was so scared I couldn't move and I almost threw up.

When I was about 16 yrs old, my Dad and I were out fishing at dusk. We pulled the boat up to the bank and a snake fell out of the tree into the boat. I immediately dove overboard off the back of the boat. My dad laughed and said there were more poisonous snakes in the water than were in the boat, about which time he tossed the snake back in the water up stream from me. About that same time a floating stick hit me and I just knew I had been bitten by one of those giant copper-mouthed-coral-rattlers! And Jesus thought he was special because he could walk on water. I ran across the water without even touching it till I got on shore and then back in the boat.

When my wife was in vet school, she came home one day and said she wanted a snake. I said fine, but I would be moving out. She said as a Vet she would have to work with snakes so this would make her a better vet. (little did we know she would later specialize in cats only). She got the snake but she kept it in her office. I never left her over it, but 15 years later when the snake died, I had never touched it. I was finally able to walk in the same room with it, but it had to be in it's terrarium.

I have no idea why. My mother was deathly afraid of snakes, so maybe I learned it from her, or perhaps it was an inherited trait. Or perhaps it was all the Tarzan movies where snakes dropped out of trees and ate people.

I respect snakes for all they do for us. But they have to do it when I am not around.

OK. Where do I turn in my man-card?
 
Norman said:
I have no idea Rich. It's always been (an Irrational?) fear of mine. My wife wanted a baby Reticulated Python. I told her she could have him but I'd be leaving. :smilewinkgrin: She opted to keep me instead. :lol:
Click to expand...

I lived with a room mate that had a 12' reticulated, he loved to sleep in my heated waterbed, his name was Eddie.
 
Henning said:
I lived with a room mate that had a 12' reticulated, he loved to sleep in my heated waterbed, his name was Eddie.
Click to expand...
I would have kicked the roommate out of my bed and told him to leave, and take his snake with him.
 
JOhnH said:
I would have kicked the roommate out of my bed and told him to leave, and take his snake with him.
Click to expand...

Nah, the snake was cool, and the roommate had his own room. The snake actually attracted various other bed partners though. He was well fed and big enough to not be afraid of anything, so he was super mellow. He was the only of the snakes we'd let the complex kids play with.
 
JOhnH said:
I don't know how to explain an irrational fear of snakes. But I know I have been terrified of them all my life.
I have a memory burned in my brain from when I was about 3 years old. A friend of mine and I were playing in the yard, barefoot. All of a sudden, she started laughing. I went to see why and there was a black snake crawling over her foot. She thought it was funny. I was so scared I couldn't move and I almost threw up.
Click to expand...
Irrational fears are just that -- irrational. I think everyone has them, some more than others. They can be of anything. Mine as a child were of kites and mushrooms (yes, tethered kites, not the bird). I wasn't really afraid of mushrooms, but thought growing mushrooms were icky and hated to step on them. But kites terrified me, I wanted to duck indoors whenever I saw one. I didn't lose that fear until my dad taught me how to fly toy kites.

But I liked snakes and still do. There was a nest of milk snakes under an outdoor stairway between buildings at school and I always tried to catch a glimpse of them (haven't seen a milk snake anywhere since then, except in captivity). When one of my girlfriends in grade school got a pet boa constrictor and brought it to school, I wanted one too. I'm definitely afraid of venomous snakes where I know they're a hazard, but I don't think that's really irrational. In the areas I've hiked, I've made sure to know as much about them as possible, how to recognize them, and how to avoid them. Even though I've hiked in areas where they're found all my adult life, I've yet to see a venomous snake in the wild.
 
LouB747 said:
The original snake pictured is an Eastern Hognose. The melanistic or black phase. Totally harmless. The snake pictured a little later in the thread is a black ratsnake.

I'm sorta into snakes. I have a few snake videos as well as some Christen Eagle flying videos on my YouTube channel. One of my videos was used on Discovery Channel.

www.youtube.com/loub747
Click to expand...

From the google pictures, I believe we have a winner.
 
Yeah, does look like a hognose snake. They're really cool, the only animals that truly play dead. When frightened they convulse and roll over dead. If you right them they roll themselves back over. Possoms just faint.

They are utterly harmless, eating frogs and mice and whatever else they can catch and fit down their gullet. Snakes are cool, and way better to have around than the vermin they eat.
 
steingar said:
Yeah, does look like a hognose snake. They're really cool, the only animals that truly play dead. When frightened they convulse and roll over dead. If you right them they roll themselves back over. Possoms just faint.

They are utterly harmless, eating frogs and mice and whatever else they can catch and fit down their gullet. Snakes are cool, and way better to have around than the vermin they eat.
Click to expand...

Just for the record, and with all due respect, hognose snakes consist on a strict diet of toads.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top