The Northern Water Snake: Everything You Need To Know!

hello everybody this is Benzino of the wild report and today we're going to be exploring an urban Creek on the hunt for the Northern Water Snake let's get exploring [Music] people are naturally attracted to water we love Lake houses beach houses fishing swimming boating snakes are also attracted to water for a variety of reasons and some snakes have evolved to rely on aquatic habitats for their livelihood this often puts water snakes in direct contact with humans which sometimes goes poorly for both species and usually results in a dead snake in this video I'll catch one of the most commonly encountered water snakes in the US and show you what makes them such amazing animals all right guys check it out we have a beautiful red northern water snake right here we're in training them out of this rock give me a second if you moments late el there we go hey buddy check it out he's doing the defensive display and everything yeah now this is a beautiful northern water snake really is absolutely gorgeous and you can see he's not extraordinarily happy all right everyone check out this awesome little snake now this is the northern water snake nerodia sigh hidan now up on first glance a lot of you probably think that this looks very similar to copperheads and to water moccasins and that's a fair point these do look very very similar to the two venomous species of snake that we have in the Piedmont of North Carolina and that's on purpose they do that so that predators are more likely to avoid them that helps keep them safe and especially when they feel threatened and they really start flattening out their heads and bodies they are excellent mimics of the egg custard on genus however northern water snakes are completely harmless these are non-venomous snakes now one thing they do have is actually an anticoagulant in their saliva and that is really really cool something that's unique I believe to the neuro so the anticoagulant basically just means that if you get bit by a northern water snake or most other neuro dia you will potentially but you will bleed more than with other snakes just because that anticoagulant kind of prevents your blood from clotting as effectively as it could now this little guy is definitely not a full-grown northern water snake he's probably a foot and a half long these can grow up to around four feet believe it or not that's pretty uncommon though I would say your average adult northern water snake is going to be probably two and a half feet long and those are pretty big snakes now water snakes also unlike terrestrial snakes are pretty heavy body you can see that even though he is a very short snake he is pretty stout and he recently camera information as we're still in March right now so this is not nearly as fat as he'll be later this year but you can see he is relatively stockily built even at a young size now water snakes are definitely one of the most commonly encountered snake in America really there's no Rodya I think in all of the lower 48 states at least some species in the Rodya most states have several the point is water snakes are pretty much everywhere and they are probably the most commonly mistaken for venomous snakes now can tell the difference between a water snake and an ax venomous snake can be pretty tricky one thing I like to look at is that dorsal stripe pattern now you can see that this pattern near the top half of net where the top third of the body you see it has very similar markings actually to me comprehend but almost the inverse so those stripes are thickest at the top in Fitness near the belly but then as you transition down the length of the body what you actually get is squares so northern water snakes have this kind of square or rectangle pattern on the side they have rectangles and on the dorsal part of their body you also have a of rectangles now that is very different than copperheads and cottonmouths which have these triangular or Hershey kisses or Hershey kiss shaped pattern all the way down their body now for some reason you approach the snake and we're close enough to see the head you can see that right now while it's not plowed out the head is about the same size as rest the body that's not a great indicator because these guys do flatten their heads out when they feel defensive but definitely you can see that the eyes are rounded and they have round pupils very different than that slit or cat eye look that pit vipers have now coloration varies very considerably among different individuals of this genus this is a very red one usually they're a little more Brown but especially when they're older that pattern can all but disappear and you have basically what looks like a cottonmouth so the best policy is just to leave them alone please do not think that oh you know there's a big snake and it's by my dock about my boat or by my fishing spot let me go kill it well first of all there's like a 90% chance it's a non venomous snake like this one but even if it was venomous you going and trying to kill it is putting you at much greater risk of a bite then if you just left alone all snakes are very shy creatures it will only bite defensively and as you can see even when being handled this water snake is being very very peaceful right now now northern water snakes have a very important ecological niche as well these guys make up the middle of most aquatic ecosystems so they prey on things like minnows and frogs occasionally smaller snakes and this size will also prayer and things like salamanders now these guys also have plenty of predators as non-venomous snakes most things that find them delete them these are preyed on very commonly by raccoons opossums large fish love to eat water snakes and especially birds of prey in herons you will definitely see eating snakes quite commonly it also as water snakes they do transfer nutrients between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems so you know let's say a water snake eats a frog at this Creek because there's lots of visible frog population then comes onto land and is eaten by Raccoon it's just transfer energy from the aquatic ecosystem to the terrestrial ecosystem it can go the other way as well but that is another really important aspect of these guys ecological niche and they really are beautiful I mean this one especially just look at the red absolutely gorgeous little snake very underappreciated in my opinion so glad we could catch this one bring in front of the camera I mean look at that belly you won't often see this when you see them you know in the wild you probably won't see the belly very often but wow that ventral scale pattern is absolutely stunning all right guys let's get this beautiful little snake back where it belongs well everyone that's just about it for this video before you go make sure to head over to Instagram and share this incredible northern water snake fact sheet made by Emily Osterman from study echo with your friends to help spread information about the species also don't forget to subscribe for more educational wildlife content coming to this channel every other Saturday morning thanks so much for watching and keep adventuring everywhere this is benzino of the wild report signing out

Channel: The Wild Report

Views: 70,464

Keywords: The Wild Report, northern water snake, snake, snakes, wildlife, water snake vs water moccasin, cottonmouth vs. water snake, water snake north carolina, water snake, water moccasin, cottonmouth vs water snake

Id: RP744lRKWY8

Length: 8min 27sec (507 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2019