I was travelling a dirt road the other day and found a DOR brown watersnake(can't remember the latin off hand), but it was the first one I'd ever seen in this area. This snake was pretty big, being between 3 and 4 feet in length. Anyway, how common are they in the coastal NC area as I'd like to find another sometime to photograph alive. Plus, I've got a yearling redbelly that eats pinkies like it's going out of style, two at a time, and I've never has to scent...so that's cool. Anyway, if you know anything about the brown watersnakes range, let me know. Thanks.
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Brown watersnake in NC
Conrad
Jun 24, 2003 09:10 PM
Replies (2)
PiersonH
Jun 24, 2003 09:43 PM
Brown Watersnakes (Nerodia taxispilota) are very common in North Carolina, and the rest of their range for that matter. However, they are very rarely seen far from water (i.e. crossing roads). Out of hundreds of taxis I've seen, only one has been on the road (DOR). If you want to find more, I suggest canoeing down any river or creek and scan branches overhanging the water for basking snakes. Most likely you'll see many watersnakes this way if the habitat and conditions are right.
That's really cool on your erythrogaster eating mice. I'm expectig babies later this summer and I hope some will be comparatively avid feeders on rodents.
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Pierson Hill
Conrad
Jun 25, 2003 10:34 AM
Of the local watersnakes I've kept for short periods of time to study, and ones I've decided to keep on in my collection, the red/yellow bellies seem to be the easiest to convert to rodents, even as adults. It usually only takes a couple of feeding off the tongues, a couple of feedings scented, and then they will usually take without provocation of any sort. I've had some that you almost need to smack with the mouse to get them to swing on it, but they go away from that and become great feeders. I had a male I called "Ears" because his belly orange color came up over his face to his neck, except two dark spots that looked like ears. The snakes in this area also tend to be orange rather than yellow or red, though I have seen two that were the most pretty red bellies I've ever seen. Thanks for the info, sorry so long.
