Broad-banded Watersnake

On this past Tuesday, we had the opportunity to trek into the I'on Trail in the Francis Marion Forest. Armed with rakes, dip nets, and a thirst for discovery, we set off into the mosquito-infested rice fields. Quickly, other students began to find various reptiles and amphibians. I, on the other hand, flipped over dozens of logs and searched high and low to no avail. As our time in the swamp reached a close, I had managed to spot a few ground skinks and one anole, but not the elusive snake. I nearly gave up and had switched to using the dip net. Standing on the edge of a flooded rice paddy, dipping my net in the water only to come back with leaves and mud, I noticed something unusual a few feet away from me. It was a water snake. At last, all my expectations were not in vain. Afraid that I would scare it off before I had a chance to get a closer look at it, I got Keith's attention and he quickly jumped into the mud and wrestled the snake into submission. It turned out to be a Broad-banded Water snake, Nerodia fasciata confluens. We came to this conclusion by first ruling out the venomous CottonMouth, Agkistrodon piscivourus, because the snake lacked a pit on its head, it had round pupils, and it had less of a triangular shaped head. It did, however, try to mimic the Cottonmouth by flattening its head to give it more of a triangular shape. Upon closer inspection, we could also see that it had keeled scales and a divided anal plate. This brought us to the family Nerodia. We then examined the banded pattern on its belly and concluded that it was a Broad-banded water snake because it had large, red square markings. Although the dark stripe across the eye is supposed to be one of the characteristics of this species, it was hard to identify. Because of its size, approximately one meter, this snake would appear to be an adult. After everyone had a good look at the snake, we safely released the snake back into the same area where we found it and it glided off in the water. Overall, it was a great day in the warm sun, enjoying our local herpetological wonders.

(Andrew See, SC)