Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a box turtle habitat. Yesterday afternoon I found a little snake among the leaf litter. It was about 12" long, and at the time thought it was a copperhead (I couldn't tell, but thought it had the arrow-shaped head...). After searching for info and looking at photos, now wondering if it was a milk snake based on inconsistencies: it was skinny not fat; had a dorsal line along its back that "divided" the sides into distinct patterns. Couldn't get a picture of it.

Well, at that size a copperhead would have had a yellow tail as well.

I didn't learn about the yellow tail until after my sighting, so didn't know to look for that -- but don't think it had one. I mainly recall long & skinny with a light-colored line along its back.

I wish I could have gotten a better/closer look at its head & eyes, but was playing it safe. We had a milk snake at the horse barn last fall, and it was easy to see it had rounded pupils.

The light colored line down its back makes me think of a garter snake or ribbon snake. Was the line yellow? Google copperhead. Once you see one there will be no mistaking another snake for it.

That's my guess as well from the description.

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Joe

I agree, either a Garter Snake, Ribbon Snake, or even possibly Brown Snake(Storeria ssp.)Depending on where he lives. A Copperhead is deffinitely out of the question with the striping he discribed, unless of course it was an EXTREMELY rare on-of-a-kind pattern mutation...

I am banking on it being one of the top three previously mentioned.

For the OP, here is a typical young copperhead that it definitely was not. Many people get the head shape thing very misconstrued, as most any snake has some sort slight widening at the rear of the head, especially when they are aggitated in a defense posture.

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

Here is a photo from my files of an eastern garter snake in a "defensive" position that Dog mentioned. Flattened out with a very noticeably triangular shaped head.

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Joe

And another photo for the OP.

Here is an Eastern milksnake and an eastern garter that were found as is under a piece of plywood.

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Joe

WOW!!! Looks alot like bonding...hehe.. Sorry wrong forum.

>>WOW!!! Looks alot like bonding...hehe.. Sorry wrong forum.

for sure...

Here's some more bonding about 100' away (on a different day)

Now I know for a fact milks eat garters, and racers eat milks so how can any of these coexist using the "bonding" logic that if kings ate kings there would be no kings,lol.
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Joe

HAHAAA!!..too funny!

Awesome "in-situ" photos Joe!..wow!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

Thanks for all the replies! Great pictures, too. I also posted on the box turtle boards and was directed to the Louisiana wildlife site (duh, me!). Anyway, it's starting to look more like a brown snake. The line on its back was light colored -- probably the same as its background color. It was a fairly pale colored little guy (pinkish tan?); his markings were smaller and more delicate than those of the copperhead. He was kinda pretty.

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"He's down in the basement staring at his snakes " My Wife

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Doug L

Sure does look like my snake, though it was a little lighter and "softer" colored. So guess brown snake it is!

Female from Orange Co NY

Male from the same spot

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"He's down in the basement staring at his snakes " My Wife

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Doug L

Doug, those are some nice looking Ltt. The first one is smoking. VERY clean backround.