While exploring the grounds of Corolla Village, near the Currituck Lighthouse, I was walking across a pedestrian bridge over near Marsh-like body of water and noticed this Cottonmouth snake below. I'm assuming he had just ingested something because I was able to get as many pictures as I wanted. It's times like these that I wish I had my telephoto zoom lens attached instead of my wide angle zoom. Still, I was able to crank it up to 85.0 mm for a capture of my first venomous snake outside of captivity.
The water
moccasin, North America's only venomous water snake, has a distinctive
blocky, triangular head; a thick body; and a dangerous bite. Water
moccasins rarely bite humans, however, and only attack when threatened.
They are semiaquatic, so they're happy both swimming in water and
basking on land in their native range in the southeastern United States.
Both "water moccasin" and "cottonmouth" are common names for
Agkistrodon piscivorus, according to
Sara Viernum,
a herpetologist based in Madison, Wisconsin. "The name 'cottonmouth'
comes from the white coloration of the inside of the snake's mouth," she
said. Other local names include black moccasin, gaper, mangrove
rattler, snap jaw, stub-tail snake, swamp lion, trap jaw, water mamba
and water pilot.
Water moccasins are pit vipers, like copperheads and rattlesnakes.
"Like all pit vipers, [they] have heat-sensing facial pits between their
eyes and nostrils," Viernum said. These pits are able to detect minute
differences in temperatures so that the snake can accurately strike the
source of heat, which is often potential prey.
For more detailed info on this Venomous snake, here is a link...
http://www.livescience.com/43597-facts-about-water-moccasin-cottonmouth-snakes.html
Cha cha, Nikon D600, Raw Format, Focal Length 85.0 mm, PS-CS6, ACR, SPM, IrfanView.
Cheers,
Brian
My Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ur4chun8/
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