This is a young Cottonmouth snake, also known as a Water Moccasin. Taken in the wild at a nature preserve near my home in Charleston. He must have been asleep, as he was perfectly still, allowing me to shoot this with a 300mm lens at f/32 for about 1.5 seconds. Even though he's just a little guy, I didn't want to get too close as these snakes are deadly...
are you sure its a cottonmouth? Looks more like a copperhead to me. They are often found in the same areas.
Hmm, maybe. The park ranger told us that he thought it was a cottonmouth, that they have the bright coloration when they're young, which causes them to be mistaken for copperheads. I guess the jury is still out... He's real tiny, probably no more than 8 or 9 inches long.
The markings look wrong for a copperhead, so it probably is a cottonmouth. I'm no snake-ologist though, but that park ranger hopefully knows what he was talking about Nice pic by the way! :thumbup:
based on the following links i'm sticking with copperhead where were you when you found it btw? Scroll down to Copperhead and cottonmouth http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/FL-GUIDE/Venomsnk.htm Closer Comparison http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/FL-GUIDE/compare3.htm
Hard to tell what it is, looks like a young cottonmouth. The darken with age. Copperheads live under my porch and I am always having to jump over them. Much rather be bitten by a copperhead vs a cottonmouth!
Opinions seem to be about evenly divided. I still say cottonmouth as well. If one looks closely, one can see the beginning of the dark band under the eye as described in the 2nd link in post #6...
