Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What kind of snake is this? Cotton Mouth - that far out in the Gulf?

TIA!
Link

I have seen that pic and several others in the last two days from several sources. Yes, it is a cottonmouth.

It is supposed to have been taken out in the gulf on an oil rig but if you look at the pictures, you can tell they water was very shallow and was simply flood water. It isn't as obvious in that pic as it is in the others in the series.

Finding cottonmouths flooded out of their natural homes and into people's yards is quite common. I guess someone went around photographing these somewhere in the affected area recently and then decided it wasn't interesting enough to say that they were found in flooded areas, so the myth of the oil rig was made.

Just wait, a few more passes around the internet and snakes will become "giants" and be said to be feeding on decaying bodies in LA and MS. Ahh, the internet. This reminds me of the Iraqi Rock Python from a few weeks ago. It wasn't interesting enough for it to have been an electrocuted normal African Rock Python in south Africa, so a little internet embellishment puts the origin as Iraq.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, TX

Yeah - that makes sense.. Big freakin Cotton Mouth though!

"It is supposed to have been taken out in the gulf on an oil rig but if you look at the pictures, you can tell they water was very shallow and was simply flood water."

I imagine you're probably right, but have you ever looked at water around an oil rig in the gulf after a huricane? I sure haven't...

Patrick Alexander

>>"It is supposed to have been taken out in the gulf on an oil rig but if you look at the pictures, you can tell they water was very shallow and was simply flood water."
>>
>>I imagine you're probably right, but have you ever looked at water around an oil rig in the gulf after a huricane? I sure haven't...
>>
>>Patrick Alexander
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, TX

the only thing that looked really shallow about the water in the series of pictures I saw was that it looked scummy, brown, etc... which, of course, you don't usually get on the open ocean. But after a hurricane? I don't know... I'm not sure how you'd tell 3-foot deep scummy brown water from 300-foot deep scummy brown water. Either way you can't see more than a foot into it.

Patrick Alexander

Here is the actual source of that photo, posted on Nature.net "Reptiles and Amphibians" forum. It was taken by a Florida resident of snakes in a retention pond, along with some other photos of Cottonmouths that the photographer wanted identified. It's ridiculous how these things get about on the internet and get blown all out of proportion.

Sharon McKenzie
Are These Cottonmouths?

Here is a link to snopes.com. They "snope" all these internet stories for the truth. Have fun, there are several snake myths on there
Katrina Snakes

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Jenea

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