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Identification of venemous snakes
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by Bobr on July 18, 2001
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I have been told that one can tell the difference between venemous and non-venemous snakes by the shape of their heads. Is there any truth to this? Where can I see this on the web?
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RE: Identification of venemous snakes
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by filthy on July 18, 2001
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Well, yes and no, and ain't that a lousey answer?
Hi Bob,
Rat snakes have heads that are somewhat distinct from the neck, for example. But even more confusing is that the defensive posture of a great many non-venomous snakes involves flattening out the body and spreading the head. There is nothing in the world that looks more dangerous than a cornered and frightened Hognose or Watersnake and both are harmless. The Hog won't even bite (although the Water certainly will).
The best way is to study the individual species and learn exactly what they look like. And the best way to start doing that is right here in the SHHS Photo Albums, then ask questions.
Click on my handle to see a magnificent Timber Rattlesnake named, "Sweet Lucky" (and his ugly keeper).
f
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Opps! Almost forgot!
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by filthy on July 18, 2001
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Get a good field guide. I use Audubon's Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. The Peterson's Guide is also a good one. Either can be had through Amazon.com, or any book store.
luck,
f
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RE: Identification of venemous snakes
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by Mojo on July 18, 2001
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I think that one of the best ways to identify venomous snakes in the U.S. is to look at their eyes. If they have eliptical pupils, like a cat, then they are venomous; they will also have heat sensing pits on their heads. The only venomous snake in the U.S. that doesnt have eliptical pupils is the coral snake, which is alittle difficult to identify because it shares a similar color pattern with some other snakes. For him you have to remeber "red touch yellow kill a fellow" or something like that. I think this is a pretty straight forward method of identifying who to stay away from but it only works in the U.S. and like Filthy said its really best to get a field guide to know what your looking at.
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RE: Identification of venemous snakes
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by Snakeman1982 on July 20, 2001
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Here in the U.S. we are very lucky to have the venomous snakes that we do because they are pretty easy to tell from other snakes. Basically if you can tell the difference between rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths (water moccasins), and coral snakes then you will be fine. The only other terrestrial venomous snakes we have are lyre snakes, vine snakes, and nightsnakes and they are all mildly venomous.
The two snakes that you might have a problem identifying would be cottonmouths and coral snakes because a cottonmouth can be confused with watersnakes (which are pretty defensive, lol) and a few other snakes and a coral snake is easily confused with milksnakes and some kingsnakes.
But if you get a good field guide like National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians and you study up on them then you shouldn't have a problem.
If you want to get more serious into snake identification then I would consider getting a better field guide like "Snakes of North America". There is a "western region" and "central and eastern region" version of it. It has a description, map, and photo of every single species and subspecies of snake in North America which the N.A. field guide does not. For example this summer I caught a rubber boa in Idaho and in the N.A. field guide it only has one picture of the rubber boa and doesn't list any subspecies. There is actually three subspecies of rubber boa (rocky mountain, coastal or pacific, and southern) all of which are photographed, discussed, and mapped out in the Snakes of North America field guide. The N.A. doesn't even have a full page of information on this snake but the other has three. So it just depends on how much you want to know about snakes but both are good.
Hope it helps
Snakeman1982
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RE: Identification of venomous snakes
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by Buzztail1 on July 20, 2001
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Hey Jason,
while the eliptical pupil method can be quite accurate, as can the facial pit markings, they are both very small and require you to be entirely too close to an unidentified snake to see them. I would hate to see someone trying to check the pupil or pit on my adult Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnake. They are well camouflaged by facial striping and stipling.
Good call on definitive markings but they would be difficult to use as field identification methods.
Karl
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RE: Identification of venomous snakes
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by Mojo on July 21, 2001
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Good point Karl I thought the same thing while i was typing my post and realized that it wouldnt be a good idea sticking your face up to an unknown snake to see how pretty its eyes are. But I decided to post it still because it is something really easy to remember and it might come in handy sometime. I guess its also good to keep in mind that any unknown snake should be treated as being venomous.
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RE: Identification of venemous snakes
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by Reptile_Freak on July 29, 2001
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I would not recommend going by the shape of the pupils to identify venomous from nonvenomous. For the most part, all the sahpe of the pupil means is either nocturnal or diurnal. Most nocturnal snakes will have vertical pupils, whereas, most diurnal snakes will have round pupils.
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