cottonmouth

[Jared Lloyd]

This is an eastern Cottonmouth in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina. There is a lot of ignorance when it comes to identifying this species due to the nature of most peoples' intense fear of snakes. Anything within a 100 yard radius of water is usually misidentified as a cottonmouth - and often killed. Notice however that this snake is actually floating on top of the water. This is one of the easiest ways of identifying this species when in the water as it usually is swiming with nearly 75% of its body out of the water as opposed to just its head or the ridge of its back like other species.

The "lollipop stick" is another species specific behavior in that when it goes on the defense (we were kayking by it along an 8 ft wide creek in the swamp) the cottonmouth will latch onto a stick or any other sort of structure it can wrap its tail around to use as an anchor. This in turn allows the cottonmouth greater accuracy when stricking from the top of the water.

Despite popular belief, this species is not aggressive. The difference is that the cottonmouth will usually stand its ground when aproached / encountered as opposed to fleeing for its life like other snakes. This has led to the myth that the cottonmouth is "awnry," "agressive," and therefore a danger to humans and should be exterminated.

I'm sure all you folks down there in Florida are more than familiar with this guy.

Nikon D300, Sigma 70-200 2.8, f/5.0, 1/500, ISO 800, Nikon SB 600 flash, WB: Cloudy b6

[Todd Frost]

I like it. Good job with the techs. As far as the snake goes, you can keep them. While I hate the weather in the pacific nw, we don't have allot of the slithering and hidden dangers you folks down south deal with. I guess there are always trade offs.
Nicely done.
Todd

[Bob Ettinger]

Good shot and behavior but really appreciated the information.

[Cindy Cone]

Great image, Jared! I like the way the stick is parallel to his tongue. Thanks for all of the info. I have seen a few down here in Florida, but so far, not from my canoe.

[Steve Maxson]

Very nice image - and biology lesson, Jared. Nice light, detail, and composition. The tongue makes this one special.

[Raul Quinones]

Great picture and good information, I have seen the cottonmouth, but never able to get a decent shot.

[gary rouleau]

Fabulous capture.
gary

[D. Robert Franz]

Great info and a fine capture here.. Would like to see the image larger!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice image. And thanks for the info. That increases our knowledge about the behaviour. As far as snake phobia goes, we should remember that far greater number of people die of accidents than snake bite. :-)

[Jack Howdeshell]

Excellent image and narrative Jared, great information. One thing to add (in my experience) in addition to their behavior of standing their ground, if they have made up in their mind to go from point A to point B and you just happen to be in-between, they will usually try to continue forward to point B. This can include a brief "overland portage" of your canoe or kayak if you are not quick or observant enough. This gives a lot of folks the impression (with very good reason) that they are very aggressive. Of course at the time, it doesn’t matter what the true intent is, I usually (correction – always) try to get out of their way to let them pass to whatever it is that motivated them. Again, great image, thank you for sharing.

[Robert Amoruso]

Great image and info. Thanks a lot.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

nice use of flash to bring out the details.
thanks for sharing the info about the snake.