Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was hiking on Blood Mountain in North Georgia mountains. It's a natural forest habitat on the mountain. There I saw a snake, brown in color with tan diamonds down his back. It was about 2 and a half feet long with a black underside. Can anyone tell me what kind of snake this is?

I know Blood Mountain well. I ride motorcycles in that area a lot. (Hiway 129, 180, 60...Wolfpen Gap)

I'm at a loss as to what this snake is, though. The black belly is really throwing me a curve. I can't think of a thing in that area that fits that description.

Hognose can have a rather dark belly. And if you could get close enough to see the belly, chances are the snake rolled over on its back...much like hognose do when playing dead. Just an idea. Andy
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Andy Maddox
The Reptizone

Who are you who can say it's ok to live through me? Alice In Chains

True, but I've never seen one with a black belly except for the all black ones (black phase). The combination of a tan/brown ground color and a black belly is what's confusing me.

My freind is telling me it was grey underneath. I apologize for the confusion. I saw it clearly but was in a panick so I must have mistaken. Thanks a lot for helping!

A Brown Waternsnake (N. taxispilota) but that would depend on the habitat. These are snakes that tend to stay around flowing rivers and I don't know how far up into the mts they get. I make the assumption that the belly was dark, not black, in drawing this conclusion.

I am curious how you knew the belly was black? Did you pick the snake up? Was it dead? Or did you just see a dark edge to the belly?

This may influence what identification we make.
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Chris Harrison

My freind rolled it over with a stick. It may have been a greyish underside, and it moved pretty fast. I was pretty scared so eventhough I got a good look at it, I might have mistaken the underside for being black instead of grey.