I caught a snake. What kind is it?

**Teleklos Archelaou** · October 20, 2006, 12:58 AM

My dog was barking her special "hey you jerks! there's a snake over here" bark last night and sure enough - snake. It was pretty small, but I'm wondering if anyone here can tell me what it is:

(picture is in the bottom of a large trash can (sans trash))

It was a fiesty little thing. Snapping and striking. I let it go this morning a good deal out from the house. I'll just say I'm in the southeastern U.S. I think it could be a Rat Snake or Corn Snake but it does have a pretty triangular head, and I suppose some type of Cottonmouth might not be absolutely out of the question, though I sort of doubt it.

Any snake experts around here? Thoughts?

**Katrina** · October 20, 2006, 01:13 AM

Moved to the Athenaeum. There are some people around here with admirable science smarts that will help to further your investigation. :hmmm:

**IronBrig4** · October 20, 2006, 01:16 AM

Looks like a corn snake to me.

**Cluny the Scourge** · October 20, 2006, 04:29 AM

How did you train your dog to identify snakes and bark especially for them? I envisage a series of traumatic experiments involving captured snakes buried at the bottom of bowls of doggy-cereal.

Edit - Jesus, I just took a closer look at that photograph and there is murder in that thing's eyes. It doesn't matter how far away you let it out, that bastard will be back for payback.

**BambooKing** · October 20, 2006, 05:15 AM

How did you train your dog to identify snakes and bark especially for them?

He lives in the South, so he has 40 dogs who all have special talents. I assure you. :tooth:

Back to the topic at hand...

The head is too broad to be a corn snake/red rat snake, even a juvenile, the color pattern is wrong.

It's a juvenile black rat snake. Easily confused for hatchling copperheads because of their colors. Rat snakes can grow to 6 to 8 feet and are not very dangerous. Not venomous either. Probably more than happy to be away from that damn barking dog!

Edit: Compare for yourself.

- Corn Snake/Red Rat Snake Juvenile

- Black Rat Snake Juvenile

**Teleklos Archelaou** · October 20, 2006, 09:52 AM

Thanks mate. I did a number of searches but all I found was pics of adult snakes, so I was having no luck really. Those juvenile pics help. My brother in law is a timber scout and is pretty good identifying snakes, but he wasn't sure if it was a rat snake or not. It didn't have that corn snake pattern underneath though - so I think you've nailed it!

As for the dog, she's a rat terrier and she can smell snakes pretty easily (no training required, sorry cluny) - it's the second one in a week (the other was a measly worm snake). She gets a high pitch constant yelp when she's smelled and found a snake, and thankfully my windows were open and I could hear it.

Thanks for dropping it in the right subforum too - I don't visit these parts of the board that often but appreciate the replies here now.

**Last Roman** · October 20, 2006, 01:16 PM

One of the reasons I'm glad I don't live in the south is because of all the snakes. Of the 17 resident snake species, only two are venomous, of which one isn't fatal and the other (timber rattlesnake) is confined to the southeast corner of the state.

**BambooKing** · October 20, 2006, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by Last Roman

One of the reasons I'm glad I don't live in the south is because of all the snakes. Of the 17 resident snake species, only two are venomous, of which one isn't fatal and the other (timber rattlesnake) is confined to the southeast corner of the state.

More often than not, snakes are relatively shy. As I'm sure you've heard/seen said a million times, the only time most deadly snakes come into conflict with humans is when we disturb their habitat. But without even knowing it, you've taken the proper steps to coexistence.

Awareness. Knowing the what and where, and having your head on your shoulders, is the best safeguard.

**RZZZA** · October 20, 2006, 02:31 PM

....I'd have made a pet out of it. Not that snakes are playful or cuddly or anything, but I like animals of all kinds and enjoy looking at them in a tank or terrarium or whatever.

You had no desire to make a discovery channel thing out of the opportunity?

**Amalith** · October 20, 2006, 02:35 PM

I'd just let it go, i used to take wild animals as pets all the time but they usually are better off in the wild. I long time ago I used to go to wisconsin a lot and brought back some toads and kept those for pets. You had to feed them these crickets you can buy from a pet store..... the noise those things make is annoying to listen to when your trying to sleep.

**JP226** · October 20, 2006, 03:14 PM

One of the reasons I'm glad I don't live in the south is because of all the snakes. Of the 17 resident snake species, only two are venomous, of which one isn't fatal and the other (timber rattlesnake) is confined to the southeast corner of the state.

There are only two bad ones down here, the moccasins and the rattlesnakes. But the rattlesnakes you have teh eastern diamond backs which grow pretty big and the pygmy which are fairly small, like a cornsnake, if even that big. The moccasins on the other hand will chase your ass if you aren't careful, but of the ones i've come across they've never come after me. Most of the time they want to be left alone and if you know where and when to look you'll be alright.

The real problem are the gators. Those are some mean animals and have no qualms about eating you. There was a guy in tampa a few years back that for some crazy reason wanna a sip of water out of a retention pond. He had to be retarded, but an 8ft gator jumped up and grabbed his head lol. He got away somehow and was alright, but coming across alligators no matter where in fl you are is an all too real possibility.

finally looked at the pic, that is definitely a rat snake.