Banded Water Snake Or Something Else?

[Mitch f]

Saw this yesterday at a local pond, thought it was a water snake but 2 people have told me about the triangular shaped head and now I'm not sure.

[jdmidwest]

Looks like a water snake to me. Some of those guys can be cheeky fellows. Too much barring to be a cottonmouth.

[OzarkFishman]

I have been on a hitchhiking rampage lately on this forum, so ...

One of those lovely guys dropped into my buddies canoe while we were setting limb lines on the Buffalo. When it dropped I luckily saw it and where it went. Once we made it to shore, we carefully took everything out of the canoe and the snake bolted to a place we could not get to. It was an aluminum canoe, both the front and back have a compartment blocked off (but there was clearance for the snake to slither into it). We had to lift the canoe up on one end and bang on it (yes we looked like cavemen). When the snake stuck its head out, we let it come all the way out and then turned the canoe bottom up. It turned out to be a water snake, but when a snake drops out of a tree and into your boat it is only smart to assume it is a cottonmouth.

Mitch, I am not the best at identifying snakes. The only way I know for sure is to watch if they are swimming completely on top of the water.

[Feathers and Fins]

Nice looking watersnake.

[Al Agnew]

Older northern water snakes have rather triangular heads. Not like a cottonmouth, and the body is always considerably slimmer than a cottonmouth. That one is pretty distinctively marked...classic northern water snake.

[Terrierman]

An easy feature to use to know the difference between water moccasin and other water snakes is a distinct neck. If the snake has a noticable neck, it's a moccasin. If the body just goes to the head without a narrower neck, water snake. Water snakes will flatten their heads and bodies to look threatening. But they can't make themselves look like they have a neck. Markings are a lot less reliable so far as I've been able to tell.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I don't hurt them, but I give them a wide berth irregardless of the species. Water snakes can act aggressive and they will bite. I got a good bite from a big Pilot black snake when I was young and they have more teeth then you can count. I bled pretty well because of all the little punctures.

[mic]

I don't hurt them, but I give them a wide berth irregardless of the species. Water snakes can act aggressive and they will bite. I got a good bite from a big Pilot black snake when I was young and they have more teeth then you can count. I bled pretty well because of all the little punctures.

I have to ask... were you trying to "catch" the snake when you were younger?

[Feathers and Fins]

LOL Bites hurt... Worse bite I ever had non-venomous was a Emerald Tree Boa. I would take a thousand watersnake bites over that one.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I have to ask... were you trying to "catch" the snake when you were younger?

Of course. I just misjudged the distance from my hand to his head. I used to catch them all the time, but this one surprised me and I grabbed, he them surprised me some more by how hard he could bite.