My Favorite Snake

Ready for action, this cottonmouth eyes me warily through my lens.

I spend about eight months of the year in the panhandle of Florida. My time is usually occupied with other things but, about once a week, I manage to get out and hike through the scrub or sail the coast. The coast is a place to see terns, gulls, dolphins, pelicans, and ospreys. The scrub, on the other hand, is perfect for creatures of the coldblooded kind, especially snakes. In dryer areas, the racer is the predominant snake species. Moving into the bogs and swamps, however, I find another snake of stark difference. Both the racers and my swamp-dweller are beautifully patterned as juveniles and both turn black as they age. That's where the similarity ends. Racers are fast. Really fast. I've only ever caught two of them before but I've seen about half a dozen. In contrast, my mystery snake is slow and fat-bodied. I've caught all but two of the many that I've encountered. Racers can be a little grumpy when caught, biting when given the chance. My most commonly encountered snake tends to be passive. But when they do bite, it can be fatal. Cottonmouths (or water moccasins) are one of the more venomous of North America's poisonous snakes. While they have a reputation of being aggressive, my experience indicates the contrary. The only cottonmouth that ever actually struck at me had every right to give me a considerable amount of discomfort, because I'd pinched his skin in my tongs accidentally.

This hefty five-footer was the first cottonmouth I've ever clapped eyes on.

This was the first cottonmouth snake I actually caught.
Just a pretty, little immature bloke.

I can still recall my first encounter with a cottonmouth. I had been looking for them, and I hadn't got my tongs yet. I was expecting a short, fat snake so when I saw a five foot monster bobbing across the slough I first mistook it for a gator. That prospect made me extremely excited, but I wasn't disappointed any when I looked again and identified it as a large snake. I marked the place it was headed for on the other shore and ran around with my Nikon to get some good shots and maybe catch it with my net. When I got there, she was waiting for me. She recoiled and vibrated her tail in anticipation of a conflict. For a few seconds I just stood there mesmerized. I'd never seen anything so impressive in all my life. Her eyes had an expression of intelligence and cunning as they glared out of the dark stripes through her eyes. I felt I had been outwitted already. She was in complete control of the situation, it seemed. Then, with a jerk of her body, she moved swiftly into a half-submerged snag. I have the utmost respect for cottonmouth snakes.

Juvenile cottonmouths are stunningly beautiful.

Cottonmouths are very placid snakes. They give plenty
of warning before biting.

Since then, I've caught about half a dozen cottonmouths between those Saturdays in the scrub. Their response is always the same. First, the recoil into an S-shaped pose. From this position, they can react appropriately to a threat. If I push in closer, the snake may vibrate its tail excitedly before trying to move away. Cottonmouths only ever want to move away. They never try to initiate a confrontation. If grabbed, it will quickly reform into an S-shape and, if it's a particularly jittery individual, it will open its mouth and display its white gums (the feature which gives it its name). If I continue to irritate it with my prodding (as I try for a photogenic pose) the snake will put an end to that by simply resuming its plan of retreat. All the cottonmouths I've ever met have wonderful dispositions.

With cotton mouth opened wide, this snake effectively says, "Back off!
I don't want to bite, but if you hurt me, I am fully capable!"

All those tails of aggressive cottonmouths just aren't credible. I've heard stories of swarms of cottonmouths emerging form snags on unfortunate swimmers, but as Alen Tennant in A Field Guide to Snakes of Florida testified, this is not a habit of the cannibalistic cottonmouth. Rather, those unfortunate swimmers are likely dealing with the much more sociable watersnake. And, in contrast to the cottonmouth, non-venoumous watersnakes bite readily.

There are few creatures as beautifully designed as the cottonmouth! When the Bible talks about the child putting his hand in the vipers hole on the new earth (Isaiah 11:8), that's going to be me. We all have something to look forward to!