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How do I sex large adult banded water snakes? I have noticed that some that I have seen have very long thin tails (males?) and others have short, sort of rounded tails (females?). Is that how you tell the sex? Or is it that in some stage of life he/she got a section of its tail removed perhapts by a gator or wading bird? Any info would be great.

Adam
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Males should have a wider tail-base and females should have a thinner one. Males tails should taper off over a longer period. Females are much larger than males, reaching up to 4-5 ft in some species. Most males are closer to around 2 give or take a bit. Their tails do fall off quite easily though, so you have to look at the base pretty much.
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Andy Maddox
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Look at the rate of taper of the tail just beyond the anal area. If the rate of taper is relatively constant across the base of the tail, it's a male. If the taper is more abrupt at and just beyond the anal area, it's a female. Andy's right - females typically are much larger than males of the same species/ssp. And yes, water snakes frequently lose the ends of their tails to predators, etc., so a stumpy tail says nothing about gender.
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MichaelB