Cotton Mouth

[bd]

I think that is the most vivid coloring I've ever seen on an adult cottonmouth in Tennessee.  It must be a relatively young one, but it looks pretty good-sized.  Most of the time, western cottonmouths tend to turn almost black as they get older.  The eastern and florida subspecies retain a little more color.  Maybe he just shed his skin.

You can see some cottonmouths in the Mississippi River basin in West Tennessee and Mississippi, but I don't think I've ever seen one near Nashville.  I almost stepped on a massasauga once in West Tennessee too.  They've got more poisonous snakes than we do here (another reason not to live near Memphis ).

I've encountered a couple timber rattlers in the Stone Door area, and I saw a few dead near the Caney last year on the road between Betty's and Kirby.  I've never seen a copperhead in the wild around here - every time someone says they've found one, it turns out to be a water snake or corn snake.

bd

[kaisersoze]

I wouldn't know about any of the above. Look away and I'm eastbound out of sight when someone yells snake.

[grumpy]

They've been sited on Turnbull by a reliable source, that's to blame close.

Grumpy

[Gofisher]

I could have gone a couple more years without reading this thread! 

[bd]

I was kicking around online and found this .pdf, with some interesting information on cottonmouths and how to identify them.

http://www.tennsnakes.org/Cottonmouth%20Brochure.pdf

The range map in the bottom corner of the first page caught my eye.  It lists an "introduced population" of cottonmouths in Coffee County.  WTF?  Who goes around stocking cottonmouths? 

bd

[dbradyh]

Back in the 70's, My uncle killed a Cotton Mouth in Van Buren Co. and I have only seen water snakes since then...
I am with you who on earth would introduce cotton mouths?
I like the underside of the tail id tip on your pdf....

[bd]

I am with you who on earth would introduce cotton mouths?

On second thought, maybe we could stock some on the Caney to cut the canoe traffic down.   

bd

[MikeA]

There are already plenty of Rattlers in the area.
I think getting someone to hide around the cave above Betty’s and play the banjo as the canoes float by might put the fear into them. Most of them don’t seem to get out of the city much. Last year Jarrod and I laughed all day when each group came by and saw the cows standing in the river. They all wanted to call someone to save those poor stuck cows. No kidding, several of them asked us who they should call. And the rest would paddle over to take a picture. Cows!,, there just Cows!! I kept waiting and praying one would try to pet the Bull. I had my camera on standby.

[jrod]

 The lovely TWRA you just got love them,i've heard rumore of black bear around the preist area. Really dont know how much truth is to it.We already have enough snakes around to go adding cottenmouths to the list.

[Steve H]

The lovely TWRA you just got love them,i've heard rumore of black bear around the preist area. Really dont know how much truth is to it.We already have enough snakes around to go adding cottenmouths to the list.

Well, like them or not, there are Cottenmouths in this area. As I have stated previously, they were around when I was growing up and I am sure they haven't died off.

This is good article: http://nashville.about.com/cs/animalspets/a/snakes.htm

There is a likelihood that some get misidentified and there is a possibility that the one on the first page could be. Look at the bands on the body compared to the photo from the link.

Anyway, like everyone, I don't mind seeing them, I just don't want to interact with them.

[jarrod white]

I dont mind seeing them either, as long as I have just blasted them with the 12 gauge.

[grumpy]

I dont mind seeing them either, as long as I have just blasted them with the 12 gauge.

You ought to be pretty busy with that snake ranch of yours, did you ever get that 10'anapyrattlmouth that blame near turned the tractor over that day

Grumpy

[Travis C.]

There are already plenty of Rattlers in the area.

Here is a study on Timber Rattle Snakes on Center Hill Lake pages 6 & 7 of the PDF.

http://www.orn.usace.army.mil/pao/pdf/2007/JuneDigest.pdf

[Little Man]

Speaking of snakes, I stumbled across these two at my house a couple of weeks ago. They started in a flower bed in the front yard before rolling out into the driveway. Naturally, I grabbed my camera, put on some "boom chicka bow wow" music and tried to direct. 









I'm sure that these two will inspire even more snake activity at the home. But, as these are kingsnakes and as they enjoy eating copperheads and other poisonous snakes, I'm sort of ok with it. Just sort of.

Please keep the cottonmouths to the west and south of us. I'm originally from Memphis, and I had my fill of them when I was younger. But, in my 15 years of living in Middle Tennessee, I've seen plenty of copperheads, water snakes, rat snakes, garter snakes and black racers ... but never a cottonmouth or rattlesnake. Hopefully, it stays that way.

[Steve H]

Speaking of rattlers. I was mountain biking through Percy Warner park in the late 90's before the granola eaters closed the trails to bikes and a group of us ran across a really fat timber rattler sunning on the side of the trail.

I wanted to ride off but one of the guys decides it would be a good thing to kill it. Ummm, that requires, even with a stick, to get close. No one got bit but I always thought that was the worst decision he ever made.