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DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> Let's play name that snake!!
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 06/15/2012 08:29:00 PM · #1
I'm currently on a trip in the Smoky Mountains and came across this fella. Can anyone help me to identify which type of snake this is? His only markings is a yellowish orangish ring behind his head.



Message edited by author 2012-06-15 20:29:49.
 06/15/2012 08:31:33 PM · #2
Boy... I don't know... But how did you put the collar on him? :P
 06/15/2012 08:31:53 PM · #3


Here's another one to name!
 06/15/2012 08:36:15 PM · #4
Why you gotta one up me with your bad ass snake? LOL

I think that is a water moccasin. If he caught that fish on his own I'd stay far away from him because that thing is a beast!!
 06/15/2012 08:39:34 PM · #5
Naw -- you put a collar on yours. Mine is just eating a tiny little fish. :P

I was wondering whether it was a water moccasin. That's what makes sense, but I've never bothered looking it up. I like wading around in that river. It does give me the creeps, now.
06/15/2012 08:45:18 PM · #6
Looking at it again -- I think I can identify your snake.

It's an ugly snake!

My daughter says, even though he's ugly, because of his bling, he's swag.

Message edited by author 2012-06-15 20:46:09.
 06/15/2012 08:49:53 PM · #7
Originally posted by SEG:
I'm currently on a trip in the Smoky Mountains and came across this fella. Can anyone help me to identify which type of snake this is? His only markings is a yellowish orangish ring behind his head.


Northern Ring-necked Snake

Diadophis punctatus edwardsii
 06/15/2012 08:54:33 PM · #8
Thanks Hahn. That is exactly what it is. The picture from that website even looks like the exact snake in my pic. He was a totally awesome dude BTW
 06/15/2012 08:58:05 PM · #9
OK, first the good news...SEG, it looks like your snake is non-venomous if maybe a little daunting due to his size. vaWendy, though, if I were you I'd be running the other way!!! Note that ring-necked snake's head is pretty much the same width as his body. But Wendy's snake looks to have big-ass venom sacs in back of his jaws, which would give him more of a triangle-shaped head if seen from above. And lookit what he's got his fangs into, a huge freaking fish! There's no way a non-venomous snake could take out prey that big. I've seen garter snakes eat frogs and even mice, but I'm pretty sure no garter snake could take a fish that big.
 06/15/2012 09:04:24 PM · #10
Originally posted by vawendy:


Here's another one to name!

Sure looks like a Water Mocassin, Agkistrodon piscivorus.

Found in the SE United States. So, where was the photo taken?
 06/15/2012 09:14:14 PM · #11
Originally posted by hahn23:
Originally posted by vawendy:


Here's another one to name!

Sure looks like a Water Mocassin, Agkistrodon piscivorus.

Found in the SE United States. So, where was the photo taken?


Judging by the shape of the head and color I'd definitely say its a Mocassin... Although where I'm at, they tend to be a little bit brighter in color, they can get huge... I've killed some really large ones down here in South Florida. In fact, I once discovered one probably 5 feet in length that had choked and died on a fish similar to the one in size that the one in your photo is after. Except the one I saw dead tried to swallow a fish called an "Oscar" //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_(fish) The snake tried to swallow it tail first, and choked when the top fin stuck up. I know this because I cut the snake open...
 06/15/2012 09:29:16 PM · #12
vawendy-
yours is definitely a water moccasin (cottonmouth)
we have them in our pond frequently and they eat our fish.
You can tell by the way its head is shaped, and the color.
Don't go near it, they're very aggressive.
 06/15/2012 09:47:40 PM · #13
Originally posted by kitkatklok:
Don't go near it, they're very aggressive.


I once saw a large cottonmouth chasing 2 girls down the sidewalk outside a movie theater. They were running fast (and screaming!) and the snake was still keeping up with them. One of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed.
 06/15/2012 10:40:24 PM · #14
I remember as a kid being in the doctors office with my mother in Maryland and there was a guy with part of his leg hanging off. He'd been bitten repeatedly by a water mocassin. They used to sun themselves out on the back roads and if you drove over them, it was the coolest thing to watch them spring up and jump out of the way.
 06/15/2012 11:45:51 PM · #15
I'd be no challenge for them because I'd be passed out! I got the shivers just looking at the images! I even lifted my feet off the ground! LOL
 06/16/2012 01:00:13 AM · #16
Ok...I have to throw in my own snake tale here. A few years back, I woke up at 445am because something just wasn't right. I sat up, moved my pillow and started feeling around. Where my pillow was, where I was feeling...it felt like a cold banana. What happened was, I woke up with a snake under my pillow, next to my arm. It was my own pet snake, which I do not have anymore. It escaped it's aquarium, crawled all the way across the house, to my room, into my bed, and ended up under my pillow next to my arm. It was drawing my body heat to keep warm. Now...I wasn't scared until I thought to myself "This may not be MY snake". The snake I had was a Ball Python, one of the smallest and most tame of the python family. At the time, it was close to full grown somewhere between 5 and 6 feet long. I laughed about it, but....I never did get back to sleep.
 06/16/2012 01:18:17 AM · #17
Never drive over a snake. This is common knowledge in the Australian bush where we have venomous snakes in abundance. Reason: When you drive over them, they can flip up and gain entry into your vehicle from underneath.

Originally posted by Kelli:
I remember as a kid being in the doctors office with my mother in Maryland and there was a guy with part of his leg hanging off. He'd been bitten repeatedly by a water mocassin. They used to sun themselves out on the back roads and if you drove over them, it was the coolest thing to watch them spring up and jump out of the way.
06/16/2012 02:13:48 AM · #18


This was in my garden a couple of weeks ago. It was fairly agressive, as you can see. It tried to attack a couple of times, even if we moved while watching it.

I was raised in Australia, so here is a true story. One night one of my sisters heard a rustling under her dresser so she got up to investigate. She even put her hand underneath to see if she could feel anything. Turns out it was a 5 foot carpet snake!! It wasn't the first time we had seen them at home.

Message edited by author 2012-06-16 02:25:55.
 06/16/2012 07:09:04 AM · #19
Also a true story... a big reason for why my wife and I live in the mountains of Colorado is because at 8500' above sea level, we do not have poisonous snakes, nor do we have any sharks. Helen doesn't like snakes. We do, however, live with mountain lions in the neighborhood (eight radio collared with 3 miles of our house). I've never seen a mountain lion, but they are frequently spotted by others .... mostly by smaller sized (than me) people, whom they are stalking.
 06/16/2012 07:27:55 AM · #20
I moved from Minnesota, which has exactly one type of poisonous snake -- which is endangered, so you never saw it -- to Virginia with 3 different types of poisonous snakes!

I figured my snake had to be a water moccasin. I don't think that snakes ever go for carrion, so the fish must have been alive at the time. But the fish wasn't putting up any fight. So I think he was already stunned.

By the way, he kept trying to drag it up on the bank, but after awhile, he went back in the water with the fish. I don't know if he gave up and let it go, or just swam to a different area to try.


06/16/2012 08:27:16 AM · #21
Originally posted by vawendy:
I moved from Minnesota, which has exactly one type of poisonous snake -- which is endangered, so you never saw it -- to Virginia with 3 different types of poisonous snakes!

I figured my snake had to be a water moccasin. I don't think that snakes ever go for carrion, so the fish must have been alive at the time. But the fish wasn't putting up any fight. So I think he was already stunned.

By the way, he kept trying to drag it up on the bank, but after awhile, he went back in the water with the fish. I don't know if he gave up and let it go, or just swam to a different area to try.


Nope, never heard of any kind of snake eating carrion. I'd say the poor fish was already well poisoned - snake got it by the base of the tail, surely there's some major blood vessels there that would carry the toxin to the rest of the body in a hurry, no way otherwise a snake could subdue prey so much bigger than itself. Snakey probably didn't realize it had the fish by the wrong end.

Last year Red and I saw a big water snake peacefully swimming along in a marshy area. It was probably a good 3-4 feet long; I was glad to look it up and read that it was non-venomous!
 06/16/2012 09:28:32 AM · #22
There are only two types of venomous snakes in NJ, and I've only ever seen one once. In the pine barrens when I was in my late teens we used to go to my then boyfriend's (now husband) fathers hunting cabin in the pines and have parties on the weekends. We came across a rattlesnake while gathering firewood. Scary sound when they're mad! Spending my summers in Maryland as a kid & teen, I had encounters with lots of different snakes. I was taught early to tell which were venomous because we were very close to a wildlife refuge area with lots of copperheads.
 06/16/2012 09:42:49 AM · #23
Hey, I'm also in the Smoky Mountains right now!! ('course I live here. hahahah) Yes, definitely a ring neck and are often caught by the young boys in these here parts for pets and pranks. The one you photographed seems to be a bit bigger than most we see.
 06/16/2012 11:46:48 AM · #24
Beautiful specimens in this thread.

reminds me of the time when nearly all the people in this picture,
were on their hands and knees, cameras at the ready, to photograph this
ferocious creature!
Here is a panoramic shot of half of the scary beast:

I believe this snake was identified as the omnipresent Thamnophis sirtalis.

Message edited by author 2012-06-16 12:00:32.
 06/16/2012 11:53:56 AM · #25
The thread title brought to mind the song, you know,

'Go wild, go wild, go wild in DPC Country,
Where snakes in the grass are absolutely free'.....
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