Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today I was looking around in a park and i found a few things. Mostly Bull Frogs and a salamander, but i did come accross a snake.

It was about 2 feet and fully black except for a little red on his chin. I didn't get to see the entire belly. It was found right at the edge of a pond and then quickly scurried into some leaf litter at the edge. Any idea of what this may have been? If you give me a short list of possibilities i could look them up. I have been looking this up for about an hour with no success. Thanks

John

Checkout the Eastern Mudsnake

More likely to be a black ratsnake...at least they occur in the state..Farancia does not. It would be an anomaly for a black rat to have a red chin, but not impossible. ~~Greg~~

the two most common black snakes we see here in NJ are black ratsnakes and black racers. the red chin sounds unusual for either of those.

Hmm this is a tough one. Definately not a racer or black rat...........

Sounds like a very dark specimen of the northern water snake
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Good one, Shaky! That may very well be the case. ~~Greg~~

the only thing is it wasn't patterned at all and it has a red throat.

I'm not sure of the ranges, but both red-bellied water snakes and copper-bellied, and any intergrades of those can have red throats and get really dark brown. Check out some pix of those species.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Just a thought - at 2 ft a black rat would probably still show pattern. The red chin rules out black racer.
The red chin a puzzle - could it have been a redbelly? Or maybe a ringneck?

JPD
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0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake "Yolanda"
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake "Steely Dan"

Gotta be a dark water snake. I've seen pretty dark ones in NJ and the red chin is far more likely to be a watersnake than anything else.
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."