Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We live in North Florida near the Georgia line and an hour west of Tallahassee. We have some acreage and our cat tried to get this guy. Husband swears it's harmless and couldn't even find fangs on him. He's about 1 foot long and as big around as a sharpie marker. We have kids so naturally I'm wondering what kind of snake this is that was hanging out near our house. I did a lot of searches but he doesn't quite resemble any one thing to me. Thanks for any help.

LOL, right after I posted this I found Southern hognose and I'm pretty sure it's that. There's no rattles so I don't think it's pygmy, but would LOVE someone to rule that out for me!

The rear fangs may be why husband couldn't find any.

Definitely a Hognose Snake. Probably Eastern Hognose, but possibly Southern Hognose. (I'll leave the final ID to those who know more than I, so that won't take long.) Harmless.

Definitely an Eastern Hognosed Snake.

Southern Hogs have more of an upturned shovel-like nose and a more even "spotted" pattern. Easterns are more irregularly spotted.

Here's the upturned snout of a Southern Hog -

and that of an Eastern -

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Without question a very harmless Eastern Hognose (Heterodon platirhinos).

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Thanks guys!

He/she was definitely a baby and very harmless. Never even hissed, just rolled onto it's back and played dead with the mouth open, haha. I even held it despite my phobia. We observed it for the afternoon and then let it go in the fields beyond our property so our cats wouldn't get it again. I'm glad our cat didn't kill it.

I'm slightly disappointed that it was eastern instead of southern because I thought we'd found something kind of rare. Definitely a pretty snake.

Very cool that it is now enjoying the wild once again out of the cat's range.
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com