Alternate Name(s):

Mud Snake

Venom Status:

Non Venomous

Characteristics:

This is a large (4 to 6 feet) primarily aquatic snake but it also burrows into loose soil. It may emerge and be surface active on warm humid, or especially, on rainy nights. It is shiny black above with red bars that are rounded on top along each side. Belly with alternating red and black bars. Scales are smooth and in 19 rows; anal plate usually divided.. Colors dull and the entire snake becomes bluish when ready to shed its skin. Tail tipped with a sharpened spinelike scale. This is a rear-fanged species that seldom if ever bites, even if handled carelessly, when restrained. Between a dozen and 50 eggs have been documented in a clutch produced by this prolific snake

Unique Features:

If picked up, a mud snake is quite apt to writhe and press its tailtip spine into your hand or arm. This action is entirely harmless; the snake is understandably nervous

Habitat and Diet:

Muddy swamp and marsh edges, flooded wetlands, pond edges and other such habitats are utilized by mud snakes. Mud snakes are specialized feeders. Although hatchlings may eat tadpoles and frogs (and perhaps a fish) for beginner’s meals, throughout the rest of their life they eat eel-like aquatic salamanders (mud eels) of two genera, Amphiuma and Siren

Geographic Range:

AL, TN, KY, AR, IL, IN, LA, MS, TX, MO, OK