Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK,

Last sunday, a couple friends and myself to a little field collecting trip to a local creek area in North Alabama to see what we could find. What we found,(as usual), were alot of water snakes. I believe the exact subspecies is the midland water snake( Nerodia sipedon pleuralis ).Anyways, most of the animals we found were your typical specimans. I believe we may have found a yellow-bellied intergrade, but that is beside the point. The point is we found an unusually light colored snake, AND I MEAN "LIGHT" !!! Has anyone ever seen a hypomelanistic nerodia of any kind? I know everyone will want pictures but I am out a digital camera right now so I really don't have a way,but I will eventually find one! This snake I believe is probably a year old which is strange in itself that it could actually survive a year being so obvious. Anyways any help or commentary is apprecited. Thank you!

Hypomelanism isn't all that uncommon in some populations of Nerodia. I have personally found hypo N. sipedon pleuralis, N. taxispilota, and N. fasciata. Hypo Nerodia are extremely attractive animals and I'd be interested in seeing your snake if you can somehow manage to get pictures. You mentioned the snake being young; it's important to remember that younger Nerodia are much brighter and definitively patterned than adults.
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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture