What kind of snake is this?

[jgradyc]

The wife was out walking the dogs by a pile of dead branches by a creek when she almost stepped on the back end of a big snake.

 

The snake was thick-bodied, brown to reddish brown body with black parallel stripes on the side (like a zebra). The stripes did NOT go across the back of the snake. The back was more or less solid color. I can't find any pictures of snakes that meet this description, but a snake's markings can vary a lot so I thought someone here might have an idea of what it might be.

 

It did not have rattles... she was only a couple of feet away when she saw it.  She never saw the head of the snake, but the part of the body she saw was over three feet long.  

[gregintenn]

Sounds like a Copperhead from the description. They aren't all striped exactly alike.

[bersaguy]

Funny that the dogs didn't react to the snake before she ever got near it. Kasey will react to ta snake out in my yard long before I ever get close to it and start barking and running around it. Most dogs will react to them. It very well could have been a Copperhead as greg mentioned. i don't know how true this is or if it's and old wives tale but I have heard that you can tell if your near a Copperhead because you will smell a strong odor very similar to a cucumber or cucumber patch. Like I said don't know how true it is since my sense of smell was destroyed by napalm years ago..........Would like to know if anyone could verify it to be true or false.... :whistle: :whistle:

[bigun]

Funny that the dogs didn't react to the snake before she ever got near it. Kasey will react to ta snake out in my yard long before I ever get close to it and start barking and running around it. Most dogs will react to them. It very well could have been a Copperhead as greg mentioned. i don't know how true this is or if it's and old wives tale but I have heard that you can tell if your near a Copperhead because you will smell a strong odor very similar to a cucumber or cucumber patch. Like I said don't know how true it is since my sense of smell was destroyed by napalm years ago..........Would like to know if anyone could verify it to be true or false.... :whistle: :whistle:

True dogs normally react to a snake. Also true they do have an odor I'm not sure I would call it a cucumber but then again I'm old and my sniffer doesn't work just right.

[xjsnake]

Are you near water? Doesn't sound like a copperhead from the description

[Raoul]

Are you near water? Doesn't sound like a copperhead from the description

I agree.

More like a corn snake maybe.

[dlm37015]

around me it would be a dead snake

[Dane]

[quote name="dlm37015" post="1156564" timestamp="1402195265"]around me it would be a dead snake[/quote] Why? Irrational fear? Most snakes are very productive rodent killers. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[.357SIG]

If the stripes were parallel to the body then it could have been a ribbon or garter snake. However they are not thick bodied snakes.

[jgradyc]

Thanks for the opinions. I asked the wife about it this morning and she said she didn't have the dogs with her, so that explains why no dog reaction. She said she didn't smell anything like cucumber, but she has a limited sense of smell, so that's not much to go on. 

 

This was by a creek in some dead limbs on the ground. It was moving away from her when she saw it.  We do have some poisonous snakes in the area.  My neighbor saw a timber rattler about 300 yards from this spot a couple days ago.  But she's sure the snake she saw had no rattles.  

 

I'm amazed at how different snakes of the same species can look. 

[jgradyc]

If the stripes were parallel to the body then it could have been a ribbon or garter snake. However they are not thick bodied snakes.

They weren't parallel to the body. They were short and almost vertical, like the stripes on a zebra.  

[runco]

around me it would be a dead snake

100% agree. 

 

Never met a snake ever that ended well for one of us.  If you notice I am the one typing, so guess what happened to the other!  I am being serious!

[.357SIG]

Sorry I misunderstood your first post. It sounds like a cottonmouth (water moccasin). They are very thick bodied snakes. They are the color that you described. They have a pattern that is visible in they young snakes, but as they get older they get darker. As they get older/darker you can only see parts of their pattern and they will eventually turn almost black with hardly any pattern.

 

My second guess would be a Diamondback water snake. They are the most common nonvenomous water snake. They are also a thick bodied snake with similar markings.

[garethsk]

Did it look like this: http://imgur.com/1H1CSXz ?

I was out doing yard work one day and this thing was up in one of my trees. Looked up and the thing was right in my face, almost crapped my pants.

[TMF]

[quote name=".357SIG" post="1156603" timestamp="1402229047"]If the stripes were parallel to the body then it could have been a ribbon or garter snake. However they are not thick bodied snakes.[/quote] I would agree as the garter snakes I caught as a kid were slim, but I just liberated a garter snake from my burn pile a few weeks back and the thing was as thick as a mature cottonmouth; about the circumference of a toilet paper roll. Mean as he'll too. Kept striking at me like a viper. Never seen them do that before. This one was pretty dark with distinct lines than ran the length of his body. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[vontar]

Funny that the dogs didn't react to the snake before she ever got near it. Kasey will react to ta snake out in my yard long before I ever get close to it and start barking and running around it. Most dogs will react to them. It very well could have been a Copperhead as greg mentioned. i don't know how true this is or if it's and old wives tale but I have heard that you can tell if your near a Copperhead because you will smell a strong odor very similar to a cucumber or cucumber patch. Like I said don't know how true it is since my sense of smell was destroyed by napalm years ago..........Would like to know if anyone could verify it to be true or false.... :whistle: :whistle:

 I believe I have smelled them before.  At least that is what my uncle said it was.  I believe he said females in heat smell like cucumbers.  Not a smell you want to smell in the woods.

[Will Carry]

If it has "Cats Eyes" it is a Pit Viper (Rattlesnake, Copperhead, Cotton Mouth). If it has round pupils it is non-poisonous. You can see the eyes from a safe distance, depending on your eye sight.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Will Carry

[xjsnake]

Sounds like a Midland Watersnake. Completely harmless unless you pick it up and piss it off. Then it will try to bite you. The bites hurt but they are non-venomous.

[bersaguy]

 I believe I have smelled them before.  At least that is what my uncle said it was.  I believe he said females in heat smell like cucumbers.  Not a smell you want to smell in the woods.

Yea, when we first began coming down here on vacations from up north my Grandfather gathers all 4 of us boys together and pulled out a big wide board from behind a barn door. On the board was about 7 seven different snake hides. He new that the only venomous snake we had up where we grew up was a Timber rattler that grew about 3 feet in length and was a very fat short snake. The first 4 were the venomous ones beginning with Copper head, then the Rattle snake, then a Coral snake and finally the all might Cotton mouth. the other snakes were chicken corn snakes rat snakes or several other names folks gave the but harmless but might make you hurt your self getting away and the Blue racer. He said that the Cotton mouth was the one to be most care of because they are aggressive and will actually charge at you so give them a wide birth. He said most of the other dangerous snakes want to get away from you about as bad as you do them. We would swim in the Harpeth River when we came down every year and he would make us take old Jake with us when were went to the swimming hole. Jake was an old hound that could smell a Cotton mouth or rattle snake 50 yards away and would begin barking putting us all on alert and sure enough we would get to see the snake eventually. After many years of all the locals using the rope swim swimming hole Cotton mouths were seldom found any where near it/ They didn't want to be around people all the time so they just stayed away from that part of the river.After moving down here and meeting a few neighbors that I had met every Summer but now would be a regular thing since we now owned the ranch the  boys my age all came and asked if they would still be able to deer hunt the ranch as they had all their lives and I said only if I can go along and I got an instant invitation to go along. The following Spring before it became illegal to hunt and kill snakes and the Harpeth river was made in a Scenic River by Tourism department a few of us kids would buy up a bunch off 22 ammo and all had semi autos ad we would launch the aluminum jon boats and float the river killing snakes. Snakes hanging in trees over the water, snakes sunning on gravel bars and snakes sunning in log jams. I'm guessing in that 3 years we did that we did that at least twice a week we killed several 1000 snakes. The third year of the float we did not see as many snakes as the previous two some i am guess we did put a dent in snake population in that stretch above and below the swimming hole. can't do those floats any more. Now it's against the law pus more important reason is my old body in a jon boat for 8 hours + I would have to be lifted out of the boat with a crane and hospitalized for at least a couple days to recoup............... :rofl: :rofl: :rock:

[subsonic]

Check out the pics in this link, they are all variations of the Northern Water Snake. We have two ponds on our place and lived along a river previously, I've seen several of the markings shown in these photos. Some look similar enough to a copperhead that the best way, as previously mentioned, to determine good guy/bad guy status is the pupils of the eyes. A water snake has an anticoagulant in its saliva and will bite if threatened, causing a lot of bleeding, but no venom.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Northern+Water+Snake&qpvt=Northern+Water+Snake&FORM=IGRE

[dawgdoc]

It did not have rattles... she was only a couple of feet away when she saw it.  She never saw the head of the snake, but the part of the body she saw was over three feet long.  

 

Rattlesnakes can break off their rattles, so the distinctive feature might have been absent.  I'm not sure if I have seen a timber rattlesnake with a solid color on its back, but they do have black vertical stripes on their body, and they are wide bodied.  Timber rattlesnakes can vary tremendously in color; in south Georgia, we call them candbrake rattlesnakes, and they tend to be a lot lighter in color.  They are the same species, but if you compare a southern timber rattlesnake to a more northern one, you would think they were different species.  Some are almost black.

[Oh Shoot]

Youse guys is cracking me up trying to identify a snake via a once removed narrative of brief encounter with south end of a northbound snake. ;)

 

- OS

[dawgdoc]

Youse guys is cracking me up trying to identify a snake via a once removed narrative of brief encounter with south end of a northbound snake. ;)

 

- OS

 

I have lots of practice; I was the "reptile guy" at a wildlife center, and we would have people calling wanting to know if they had a dangerous snake based on a vague description.  More than once, the description was a combination of features that I knew did not exist in our native snakes.  In the back of my mind, I would worry that one day some exotic venomous snake would have been released, and I would mistakenly tell someone not to worry.  Actually, I generally told them not to worry about any snake, but I don't think some people took my advice.