In the spring of
2017, I took part in a study in which we captured and traced Copperheads, Agkistrodon
contortrix. The goal of the study was
to track and record the temperatures along with the distance traveled by each
copperhead. To start this study we caught around 10 copperheads over multiple
nights and put a “tracker” which contained fishing line that was tightly spun
so the snake could keep moving but would leave behind a string path. We then
came back to see the distance traveled and the temperature of the locations it
traveled to. We performed this study right off of the main road on Coastal
Carolina University campus in an acre of pine tree woods. We noticed that the
best time to catch them was evening hours right around sunset. We noticed that
they were very active during these hours because they were most likely hunting.
One copperhead I remember the most was an extremely large female that was
around three and half feet with a pretty thick body. Copperheads, Agkistrodon contortrix are pretty easy
to identify. They have a very triangular head that is a copper color. They have
cross bands all the way down their bodies and when they are juveniles they have
a bright yellow tail.
2 comments:
Very cool experience! Do you recall how the individual you mentioned was identified as female?
This sounded like an exciting experience!
Do you have any photos of juveniles with the brightly colored tails that you could share?
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