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Reptiles & Amphibians

Snake ID?

17 years ago

I found this snake today when I flipped over a rock in my yard in Memphis, TN. Even though it looks big in the photos, it was only about 1 foot long - clearly a juvenile. It was pretty feisty and kept lunging at me. The top of its head (middle photo) is really unusual (at least to me). Thanks in advance for your expertise.

Tim

{{!gwi}}

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Comments (4)

mikeygraz
17 years ago
First off - thanks for posting such great and diagnostic photos. It'd be much easier to ID things if people always posted such good photos.

Thats a little Nerodia sipedon (Nerodia sipedon pleuralis (Midland Watersnake) if you go for the subspecies thing). The behavior you noticed is very typical for most snakes in that genus - pretty ill-tempered little brats! haha

~Mike
timvid
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks Mike. I'm always impressed by the identification skills of some of the people on this site. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

Tim
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So glad that Hissy has found a good temporary home. I've always loved snakes and have had them as pets since I was a child. Later, when I was in grad school and living in an apartment just off campus, my much younger brother brought a rat snake home from scout camp. Unfortunately, my father, who was terrified of snakes, announced that either the snake went or he would go, so naturally I took him off my brother's hands and installed him in a nice herpetarium in my apartment (at which point I discovered just who my friends were and weren't!) Kaa (as I named him, from Kipling of course) stayed with me until I had to move to another location, at which point I found a new home for him.I would love to have a snake pet again, but now I'm in a New York City apartment and haven't the room it would need. I'm hoping that Hissy will find a wonderful new home. Thanks to you for being so kind in rescuing him even though you weren't familiar with snakes!
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Not sure where you are located but just generalizing, the head is the wrong shape to be one of the venomous North American snakes. The exception to the triangular shaped head would be the coral snake and it certainly isn’t one of those. Just leave it be and let it go about its business of eating vermin.
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zackb
17 years ago
Great photo and ID. Thank you both.
longlegggs
17 years ago
Pond snake...For the last 2 years I have had this visitor, which I am assuming is a garden snake, very thin, long, and small head. He comes out of the pond into the flowers and then scurries away. This year when planting seeds he ran across my foot and I almost had a heart attack. Are they dangerous in any way, is it really a garden snake. Northeast Penna. (Valley Forge area) Does anyone have any knowledge about them?

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