Posted: 5/2/2006 3:46:35 PM EDT
Took this picture earlier today: I *think* this is a Northern Water Snake. Can anyone confirm? |
Apparently northern water snakes lose their coloration as they age:  I went through this whole snake ID thing: fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/virginia_snake_identification.htm which gets VERY specific. I should also add that this thing was sunning on a rock in my pond |
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Wow, thanks there Napolean, cuz I'd never seen those before. 'Preciate ya. K, this is done now, back to your regularly scheduled topic. |
correct....it's certainly a northern water snake A herpetologist at U Mass Amherst confirmed this. His explanation was long-winded, but based upon the keeled scales, the scale count, and the various feature of the plates around the eye and nose, he said it 100% a northern water snake, unless I was in extreme SE Virginia, in which case it could be a red-bellied water snake. |
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IDing a snake purely on color won't do it. Snakes adjust their color according to their suroundings. As you can see NoVaGator's pic shows how close the snake's color is to the rocks, a color adaptation on his part. If the snake was in a dark merky swamp it would be much darker. Younger snakes have more of a visible color pattern than older snakes. |
exactly...when I first contacted this snake expert (friend of a friend) I told him that I *thought* it was a northern water snake, but the coloration was nothing like any descriptions or pictures I had found on the web. He immediately said that the coloration was one of the least important (and most misleading) features for ID because it's so variable. But the count of the various plates on the head was key, and can help you determine species when everything else fails. |
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That was a pretty sweet pic NoVa! You should be a photographer. At what range? Um, about 2 meters. It was actually about 1 and a half I think. It was 1 and a half, I've got a great Polaroid of it, and he's right there, must be 1 and a half. It was a nice picture. Thanks. |
Thanks Justin.....as Hokie said, I am! (at least for part of my job) I was actually thinking that the pic was a little soft, but I didn't want to bother with photoshop. The pic was shot with a Canon 1D and a Canon 300mm f2.8 IS L lens. (handheld, but with image stabilization on  ) |
I have owned many snakes, and still do. I have to disagree with this statement. I have never read in a book (f the internet) that a snake changes it color do to suroundings. My snakes will change color due to age and do to where they are in their shed cycle. Scale placement and scale count are the best ways to identify a snake. I agree 100% on that. |
+1 snakes don't change their color according to their surroundings. |
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Snakes do not change colors like a chameleons, how ever the snakes color depends on its habitat. For instance, you will see the black phase of the timber rattlesnake in areas of high elevation or on north slopes because they need to absorb more radiation to warm up. Similarly in swamps you will see cottonmouths that are stone cold black to a dark olive color while a cottonmouth in a upper coastal plain/piedmont area will be tanish brown. The snake's color scheme is dependant on age and environment. I hope you didn't think that I ment that if you were to put a brown snake in a green environment that it would become green. |