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Posts Tagged "Nerodia sipedon"

Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon)

Posted on Jul 16, 2014

Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon)

Today is World Snake Day, intended to draw attention to the plight of snakes worldwide and to celebrate how incredibly fascinating they are. I thought I’d share one of our local species whose classic case of mistaken identity often has it end up on the wrong end of a shovel. Throughout its extensive distribution range Northern Water Snakes (Nerodia sipedon) are regularly mistaken for venomous Water Mocassins or Copperheads – even in areas where these two venomous snakes don’t even occur! Water snakes tend to show their unease with an approaching human by pretending to be...

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