Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The snake was seen in central Mississippi. The expert on the site first calls it a Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, then corrects himself and calls it a Western Timber Rattlesnake.

I'm thinking Diamondback Water Snake. But I must admit that his credentials (listed below) seem more impressive than mine.

I'll take the word of a certain select few on this forum over ANYBODY, ANYWHERE, so this is where I'm coming for the definitive answer.

Oh yeah, because I promised:
His credentials

Expertise
Snake identification, husbandry, venom compositions, how to remove and relocate snakes safely, assistance with bite emergency, how to keep snakes out of your yard, venomous or non venomous, and how to coexist with them and be happy doing it.

Experience
Working with reptiles for over 40 years now and owner of Specialized Venom's. The past ten have been the best, I am with my best friends every day and what more could one ask for.

Organizations
South Eastern Herpetological society SHHS British Herpetological society The US Toxicological society Australian Herpetological society

Publications
Toxicological review Practical reptile keeping Cryptozoology society (British) Several news service and journal quarterly papers

Education/Credentials
PSTC, Biology major left prior to degree.

Original question

Watersnake.

there won't be too many arguments. you are correct with the diamondback water snake. that is about 1500 miles from the range of the blacktail rattler. as for the other gentleman's credentials, all i can say is "you cannot be serious."

While I would say that even an experienced person might think that was a blacktail (or timber) rattlesnake.....if they only took a quick glance at the photo...it's clearly a diamondback watersnake. An especially pretty one at that...

While I don't have the claimed experience of the expert in question, I do have a blacktail rattlesnake (and a timber) and when I can't tell the difference between a rattlesnake and a watersnake, it will be time to hang up my hooks...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

I don't really think the credentials matter if you miss an ID like that. Although I guess this snake has a superficial pattern similarity to a Timber Rattler, I don't think you will find too many Timbers stretched out on a log basking in a river (unless there is one hell of a flood!)

As for their credentials:

Expertise
Snake identification, husbandry, venom compositions, how to remove and relocate snakes safely, assistance with bite emergency, how to keep snakes out of your yard, venomous or non venomous, and how to coexist with them and be happy doing it.

This isn't expertise, it is experience. And you still whiffed on this one.

But this was my favorite...

Cryptozoology society (British) -

Are you serious? Someone put this on their vita/resumé? ROTFLMAO!

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I have learned that he is the resident "expert" at www.allexperts.com, which means that he has answered hundreds if not thousands of "what kind of snake is this?" questions. I didn't have to go through his list of responses for long before I found one where he called a ready-to-shed Milk Snake a "rarely seen in the wild" "albino Corn Snake."

No telling what he would be saying if he wasn't an expert.

The internet allows anyone to make up anything about themselves or others. The snake was correctly identified by everyone here. Calling the "expert" out on his bogus credentials & inability to make a rather easy identification seems like it may be in order, but in all likelihood would accomplish nothing.

~~Greg~~

LOL!!,.....I totally agree on all counts!

This sort of thing happens ALL the time, both the self-proclamation of so-called "expertise", as well as the gross misidentification of snakes.

No doubt (as Larry already stated) the snake is a very fine looking example of a Diamondback Water Snake (Nerodia r.rhombifer)

Here are two less contrasting or cleanly marked "Timber Rattlesnakes" (Nerodia) doing their thing thing on a watery log..

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"