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Florida, especially South Florida, is the perfect place for snakes to live in the wild. The climate ranges from subtropical in the northern part of the state to tropical in the southern part. This means that the temperature rarely drops to freezing point or below. There’s plenty of vegetation for a snake to hide in, whether they need to wait for prey, avoid their own predators, or regulate the temperature outside of the Florida sun. There is also a lot of prey, from insects to rodents and, in some cases, mammals the size of a… goat or a deer. Florida snakes come in all sizes from small to huge. They are poisonous and non-toxic and can be a neutral color or a rainbow of colors. Here are 10 snakes found in Florida and some facts about them:
1. Oriental mud snake
These snakes grow to about four feet in length and are glossy black on top and red and black on the bottom, with red bars along the sides. It is found in the cypress swamps of Florida and when not in the water, it hides under vegetation or fallen leaves. As a semi-aquatic snake, it only perishes on land hibernate, lays its eggs and finds more water sources to swim in as its habitat dries out. It eats aquatic animals such as: salamanders. The spine at the end of the tail aids in the identification of this snake. However, the spine is not poisonous even though the snake is uses it to poke at potential prey. The female sometimes lays her eggs in the nests of alligators and guard them valiantly until it’s time to hatch.
2. Ring Neck Snake
The species of ringneck snake found in Florida, Diadophis punctatus is a small snake that grows 8 to 14 inches in length. It is not poisonous and gets its name from the fact that it has a colorful band behind its head. It is gray-black on top, but underneath is a vibrant orange, yellow, or red, with a row of dark, small crescents in the center of its abdomen. The ring-necked snake is found in Florida’s forests, whether dry or damp, and is a common visitor to suburban gardens. However, it is rarely seen as it hides under rocks and logs and is active at night. The snake eats amphibians, snails, earthworms, insects and lizards, and snakes that are small enough to handle them.
3. Brahmin Blind Serpent
Blind snakes, also called worm snakes, are so small that they are often mistaken for baby snakes of other species. The Brahmin blind snake doesn’t get much more than 6.5 inches. They are thin snakes and their scales, which can be shades of gray or even purple, are smooth and shiny. This gives them an oily or mercury appearance. It can be difficult to tell the head from the tail, especially since the blind snake’s eyes are rudimentary. Some people confuse them with earthworms and baby snakes, but earthworms are segmented and they certainly don’t have a forked tongue. These characteristics aid in the identification of blind snakes. But blind snakes are like earthworms in that they dig through the ground and under the debris found on the ground. Because they are so small, blind snakes eat ants, termites and their eggs, larvae and pupae.
By the way, the Brahmin blind snake is not native to Florida but somehow came to the state from the south Asia. Now it is quite common throughout the state.
For more information on the smallest hoses, visit here.
4. Eastern Indigo Serpent
The oriental indigo snake used to be popular as a pet, but its conservation status is under threat, and some states require a permit to own one. It gets its name from the iridescent purple-black scales on its abdomen. The scales on the sides and back are blue-black, although some snakes have a bit of red or orange around their heads. Other facts about the indigo snake are that it can grow over 9 feet in length and weigh nearly 10 pounds. A non-venomous and mostly peaceful snake, in the wild it is found in sugar cane fields, thickets near rivers, hammocks, flat forests, the bottom of dry streams and sandy hills. The snake travels back and forth between these habitats throughout the year. The indigo snake sometimes settles in armadillo bolt holes. It eats other reptiles and amphibians, birds, their eggs, and mammals.
5. Florida Pine Snake
This colubrid snake is only found in the southeastern states of the United States. It is a large, bulky snake that can grow up to 7.5 meters in length in the wild. It lives in pine forests, oak forests, sand hills, pine forests and meadows. It is non-venomous but powerful and subdues its prey by squeezing it to death in its squiggles. One of three pine species, the Florida pine snake can be gray-brown to rust-colored with blotchy patterns on its scales. Males and females look alike. These snakes also have pointed snouts that help them dig, and have a bit of cartilage in their throats that amplify their hiss and roar when threatened. They can also vibrate their tails to mimic the dangerous rattlesnake. Despite their powerful build, pine snakes are eaten by foxes, skunks, pet dogs
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and cats, birds of prey, raccoons, and even shrews, and their eggs are eaten by other snakes.
6. Oriental Coral Snake
The coral snake is beautiful but poisonous. This differs from venomous in that the snake can release its venom through its fangs. It is often confused with harmless snakes like the scarlet kingsnake, but it’s good to remember this phrase when it comes to coral snake identification: “Red on yellow kills a fellow, red on black, a friend of Jack.” The color scheme of this New World version of the coral snake is a series of red, yellow, and black rings, in that order, from head to tail. This snake, growing to just under 3 feet, is found in the everglades, in hammocks, and arid, open areas of the southern part of Florida. It eats frogs and others reptiles, including its peers. the coral snake is oviparous and produces from three to twelve eggs in early summer that hatch in September. The baby coral snake is between 7 and 9 inches long.
7. Florida Rattler
The Florida rattle is another venomous snake. Formally known as the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, this snake is the largest of the rattlesnakes and at least one of the heaviest venomous snakes in the world. It is only found in the southeast United States and lives in dry pine forests, sand hills, coastal hammocks, swamps and salt marshes. Sometimes it hunts prey in trees or bushes. Its venom is potent and its fangs can be two-thirds of an inch long.
The snake can weigh as much as 34 pounds and be nearly 8 feet long. The scales are shades of brown, gray or olive green with a pattern of brown or black diamonds fringed with cream-colored scales with centers that are light brown or gray. The snake’s head, which has a pit that helps it feel the heat of potential prey, has a stripe that starts behind the eye and slopes down to the upper jaw. The Florida rattles eat rabbits, rodents, and birds but is itself eaten by birds of prey, especially when young.
Read this one to learn more about the Florida rattlesnake.
8. Florida Kingsnake
This medium-sized snake can grow up to 1.5 meters in length and enjoys eating other snakes, including their venomous cousin the rattlesnake. It is a snake with glossy black scales and 60 white or yellow transverse bands. These cruciate ligaments are important in identifying kingsnakes, as there are 45 subspecies of kingsnake, and some of them are very similar. It gets its name “king” because it hunts other snakes. This kingsnake is immune to the venom of the snakes that inhabit its territory and has a double constriction power to ensure it properly suffocates its snake prey. The Florida king snake also eats lizards, birds and rodents.
If the owner has the space for it and is committed to proper care, the Florida king snake can make a good pet. One thing to watch out for is to make sure the enclosure substrate does not have pine shavings, which are poisonous to snakes and other reptiles.
9. Florida Striped Water Snake
Facts about the Florida banded Waterhose are that it is naturally found only in the southeast, that it can grow to between two and two feet in length, and that it is ovoviviparous. This means that the female snake keeps the eggs in her body and the babies are born after the eggs are incubated in the mother. These snakes can have as many as 57 babies at a time.
The Florida striped water snake is light brown on top, with red or black cross bands. Its abdomen is pale with darker colored markings, usually reddish or brown. It is a subspecies of the southern water snake and they can be distinguished from each other by the shape of the spots on their abdomen. The snake is found in all kinds of water in Florida, including lakes, rivers, swamps and other wetlands, as long as the water is fresh. As a semi-aquatic snake, it eats aquatic life such as fish, frogs and other amphibians. Occasionally birds are needed, earthworms, smaller snakes and turtles, and crayfish. The water snake is in turn eaten by alligators and birds like the great blue one Heron.
10. Burmese Python
As the name suggests, this is Python is not native to Florida. It is native to the southeast Asia. People bought the admittedly attractive non-venomous snake as pets, but released it into the wild when it grew too large, assuming it could survive in Florida’s warm climate. They were right. If you read about a goat or a deer being attacked and swallowed by a huge snake, this python is the culprit. It is by far the longest and heaviest snake listed here and can grow longer than 16 feet and weigh over 100 pounds. This is especially true for women, who are much taller than men. Indeed, a Burmese python name
d Baby was nearly 19 feet long and weighed more than 400 pounds at its death.
To go here to learn more about the Burmese python.
Next one: How old is the world’s oldest alligator?
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