Natural History: The Cottonmouth Snake

The cottonmouth snake or scientifically known as Agkistrodon piscivorus is a venomous snake that belongs in the family Crotalidae. The venom in these snakes are hemotoxic and destroys blood cells and their ability to clot. Cottonmouths can be distinguished from other snakes by their pits located between their nose and eyes, their vertical pupils, broad head, and hinged fangs in the front of their mouths. 

The pictures above were taken on our field trip to Caw Caw County Park. I have never seen one so close up, and immediately I was enamored by them. These snakes are found in the Southeastern part of the United States and there are three subspecies: the eastern, Florida, and western cottonmouths. They are semi-aquatic snakes and tend to inhabit brackish waters, swamps, marshes, and streams. They are more active at night and tend to bask during the day, which is shown in the above pictures. Their diet includes a variety of warm and cold blooded prey including other water snakes, fish, frogs, birds, etc. The pit in between their eyes and nostrils is used for heat-sensing and they can accurately strike a prey. The females are oviparous and they breed during the spring. The males will nudge the females back and sides until she is ready to engage in copulation. Females can have up to twelve young at a time. The young can be recognized by being brightly colored and a bright yellow tail. 

When we saw these snakes in the field, I was immediately drawn to them. Snakes in general are very cool, however these snakes are very distinct and I felt very lucky to see them that day. From the pictures, I can't really tell the sex of the snakes but they do seem to be adults. The snakes appear to be fully grown, and though they are curled up in the pictures, they can be anywhere between 30-48 inches long. The young are brightly colored with yellow tails but the snakes above are darker with no yellow tail. The snakes in the picture are basking but they did remain close to the water. The fact that they remain close to the water even while basking shows the habitat of these snakes. They are aquatic and prefer areas where there are lakes and ponds, such as this one but also need some sort of terrestrial area for basking, which is near the water. While venturing the area, we found many animals including anoles, leopard frogs, salamanders, amphuimas that can be potential prey for the cottonmouth. 

My experience about the trip was truly memorable. I have never been to Caw Caw so it was particularly interesting for me to see the amphibians and reptiles we were studying in lab, except these were live and made the trip even more worthwhile. I particularly enjoyed collecting the traps and finding what was inside them. I have never done something like that in the field before and I would definitely do it again. Overall, I loved going out there and finding frogs, lizards, salamanders, amphuimas, tadpoles, etc but the snakes were definitely a highlight for me.