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Posted
13 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

b599cea0899882c1ecb7d794981dabde.png

Found a cool snake ID app. It saved his life. My dachshund found him in the garden.

The vertical stripes along the jaw are the dead giveaway and usually observable from a safe distance.

Good example of one doing its pit viper imitation with the flattened head.

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Posted
36 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

The vertical stripes along the jaw are the dead giveaway and usually observable from a safe distance.

Good example of one doing its pit viper imitation with the flattened head.

And the round pupil, not always observable from a safe distance. 

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Posted
29 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

Some guys on YouTube also said cottonmouth scales protrude over the eyes and cover them when observed from above.

Also, you can pet it, and if it bites you, it’s probably a cottonmouth.

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Posted

Be really careful using short cuts when identifying snakes as venomous or harmless.  You'll hear that round pupils and bars on the jaws denote harmless water snakes as opposed to venomous cottonmouths.  Following those characteristics, this photo is easily identified:

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Except that its a venomous Florida cottonmouth (same traits are true for the Northern cottonmouth found in Texas).  While the harmless water snakes will not have vertical slits for pupils, light conditions effect the shape of pupils - in low light cottonmouths can have round pupils.  The bars on the jaw are not like the local water snakes which are on both the upper and lower jaws, however, when people give shortcuts, they often just say bars on the jaw.

This picture does show the hooded eyes which are mentioned upthread.  From the top, the eyes are not visible.  Water snakes do not have hooded eyes and their eyes are more on top as shown in @BearSchlong's picture above.

The best rule is that if a short cut is not 100% in every situation, its not a good short cut.

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Posted
17 hours ago, South Austin said:

Also, you can pet it, and if it bites you, it’s probably a cottonmouth.

Although humorous, water snakes are actually some of the most aggressive non-poisonous snakes. They can have a nasty bite and a mouth full of bacteria. I had a HS classmate get bitten by a DB water snake and he got really sick from it. Although he was a low IQ idiot who deserved it thinking he would impress the girls playing around with it. I don't think they were too impressed.

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