Indiana Snake Identification

[mclendenen]

Hey everybody,


I came across a snake in the yard yesterday. Im trying ti figure out what kind it is. THe only reason I saw it was because it spooked one of my dogs. I went over to see what he was going nuts about and saw this guy.
He was coiled up against the fence. I tried to move him with a broom stick and he coild up and struck at me. Ive been around a decent amount of Indiana snakes in my life and ive never seen one like this or this big.
About 3 feet in length, triangular shaped head, round pupils, no rattle. There is a large lake and also a swamp not too far away from us. He slithered away into the tall grass and into the woods.
I am only concerned since my dogs are out there all the time.
Here is a picture of it.
10495

Thanks!

[Stefan-A]

Nerodia sp. Harmless, unless you're a fish.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Agreed! Harmless water snake.
Nerodia sp. Harmless, unless you're a fish.

[jwolfe152]

Agree with above nice looking snake though. I had a baby one for a few weeks the thing was feisty when i set him free he bit Mr a few times, they are brave snakes lol

[guidofatherof5]

Concur, water snake.

Northern water snake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_water_snake)

[joeysgreen]

A fantastic find. I envy anyone with such wildlife in their backyard!

[Garter Keeper]

Nerodia are neat snakes, i've kept a variety of species over the years (seems to be a bit of cross over between Nerodia and garters as far as care goes). My first pet snake was a nice northern that I named Houdini since I still dont know how he managed to get out so much. They are pretty spunky about being handled but in their defense we have to be pretty scary to a snake. They can be locally rather abundant but too many people kill them because the are either afraid of them, worried that they'll eat all their sport fish, or simply ignorant of the roles of reptiles in nature.

[jwolfe152]

Or ignorant to what species it is (ie thinking its a copperhead) because they do look similar in markings but not the head. I mean if i didn't know what to look for very well i could see making the mistake