Hey everyone. I live in southeast coastal Georgia. Recently my cat dissapeared (hopefully it was something honorable like being bitten by a cotton mouth)which sucks but is great for the snake population. Ive seen more snakes in the last few weeks then I have since I moved here. So to get to my point. Lately we've been having a ridiculous amount of rain, so much so that if a snake wanted to get to my back porch from the woods it would have to swim across the yard. So today (around 3 pm) I saw a short (about 2'- 2 1/2') and semi stout snake eating a toad on the back porch. I was in a rush so I only got enough of a look at it to see that it had a line running down its back. My first thought was Hognose because of its short stout nature and food of choice, but then I thought about how wet it was and how Hognose snakes dont particularly care for water, and taking into account the line running down its back I have sort of ruled out a Hognose. Anyone got any other ideas?
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unknown snake on back porch
Replies (2)
Ive seen more snakes in the last few weeks then I have since I moved here.
This is probably due to
1. increased fall activity
2. increased rain fall
rather than the absence of your cat.
So today (around 3 pm) I saw a short (about 2'- 2 1/2') and semi stout snake eating a toad on the back porch. I was in a rush so I only got enough of a look at it to see that it had a line running down its back.
Hard to say without a picture or a better description.
A striped snake eating a toad was very likely an Eastern Gartersnake.
I don't know what they look like in your area of Georgia, but across the Savannah river in southern SC, they are often somewhat checkered with a lighter stripe down the back. Here's one from the Savannah River Site -
In Florida, I have seen a lot of eastern garters that were dark with light yellow stripes. Here is a florida snake -
It seems likely to be one of those as many snakes won't eat toads. Gartersnakes generally will.
Eastern Ribbonsnakes probably occur in your area as well, they they are slender snakes. I can't imagine one being described as semi-stout.
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Chris Harrison
Central Texas
Awsome. I think you hit the nail on the head. Thanks!
