Image of snakes

Description:

This 2005 photograph depicted an Florida cottonmouth snake, Agkistrodon p. conanti. When one thinks about snakes indigenous to the hurricane prone areas in the eastern United States, the cottonmouth or water moccasin is probably the first species to come to mind. The cottonmouth is a large dark heavy-bodied snake that ranges throughout a large portion the southeastern United States. Cottonmouths are the largest snakes in the New World Agkistrodon species complex and are the only members of the group that are semiaquatic (Gloyd and Conant, 1990). Three distinct subspecies are currently recognized; the eastern, Florida, and western cottonmouths. The Florida cottonmouth ranges from the southeastern extreme of South Carolina through coastal and southern Georgia, south throughout the state of Florida and west along the Gulf Coast to the eastern face of Mobile Bay in Alabama (Gloyd and Conant, 1990).
Created: 2005