Categories

Snakebite from a Juvenile Western Cottonmouth in Manvel, Texas

On Labor Day, 5 September 2011, while I was doing research in Garland, Texas, my cell phone rang. On answering, Darryl Archer, of Manvel, Texas (a town of 7,000, some 24 miles due south of Houston), spoke the following words to me: “Hi, Mr. Cates… my wife just got bit by a snake in our back yard, and I’m hoping you can help me identify what bit her.” [...]

September 10th, 2011 | Category: piscivorus | Leave a comment

A Western Cottonmouth Snake in Santa Fe, Texas

This is a western cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma), also known as a water moccasin. The copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) has pinkish copper-colored markings — emphasis on the pinkish background — and the face does not have the conspicuous black eye stripe, from the eye back to the mouthline, edged in white, as shown in your specimen. [...]

August 29th, 2011 | Category: piscivorus | Leave a comment

Cottonmouths & Copperheads in Texas, June to August of 2010

You look closer. A snake, swimming in the languid stream, is clearly the source of the disturbance. Its body glides along the water’s surface, halfway submerged along its length, half above the water line. “What kind of snake is it?” you wonder. But how can you possibly make a good guess about its identity, this far away? That’s a good question, provided there is a good answer to go with it. And, it happens, there is. A good answer, that is. [...]

August 9th, 2010 | Category: BROAD-BANDED COPPERHEAD | Leave a comment

A Southern Copperhead in Allen, Texas

Had she stepped on this snake, it would surely have bitten her. And although it was only about 24 inches long, she had a 50/50 chance that its bite would have landed her in the hospital, with a very sore ankle and leg, facing a lengthy recuperation and enormous medical bills. And, of course, she had less than a 0.02% chance that the bite would have been fatal (no fatal copperhead bites have been recorded in the U.S. since the early 1980′s). [...]

April 19th, 2010 | Category: SOUTHERN COPPERHEAD | 2 comments

A Broad-Banded Copperhead in Round Rock, Texas

Steve wrote: “We’re having a pool put in the back yard of our home in Round Rock. My daughter and I were picking up branches after taking a tree down, and found this copperhead in the bottom of the woodpile.” [...]

March 17th, 2010 | Category: BROAD-BANDED COPPERHEAD | Leave a comment