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peterkopher [2015-06-08 16:39:50 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the information! This was at Minnewaska State Park in NY, but I will rename this picture correctly.

Thanks again,
Peter

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pitbulllady [2013-08-17 17:35:35 +0000 UTC]

This beauty is NOT a Copperhead, but a young Northern Water Snake(Nerodia sipedon), completely harmless.  You can plainly see that this snake's pupils are rounded, whereas a Copperhead, like all pit vipers, has vertical slits for pupils, like a cat.  A Copperhead's head is shaped more like an equilateral triangle, very wide at the rear to accommodate the venom glands, giving the impression of a very distinct neck, while this baby has a more oval-shaped head and very little distinction between where the head stops and the body begins.  Copperheads' dorsal pattern resembles darker "hourglasses" or "hand weights" against a lighter background; seen from the side, the darker patterns resemble Hershey's Kisses.  Here's a photo of two captive Copperheads belonging to my friends Heyward and Ted Clamp, who run the Edisto Island Serpentarium near Charleston, SC for comparison:  pitbulllady.deviantart.com/art… and here's a close-up of the head on this species so you can see how the eyes are very different: pitbulllady.deviantart.com/art… . I breed Nerodia, btw, including Northerns like this one, and I have also caught and kept many Copperheads.  If you DO live where there are any venomous snakes, it is important to be able to accurately ID them and distinguish them from harmless species just in case you do get bitten, although most envenomations occur when trying to harm the snake, so avoiding that will greatly reduce the chances of a bite in the first place. 
I'm not sure which Lake Minnewaska this is referring to, as there's one in upstate NY and one in Minnesota, but if it's the later, Copperheads aren't even found there.  The only two venomous species in that state are the Western Massasauga Rattler(which is Endangered) and the Timber Rattler, which is also not common in that state.

pitbulllady

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