northern watersnake question

Does anyone know a good website where I can learn about the different color morphs of the northern watersnake? They are very abundant in my area and when I go for a walk along the creek I see another water snake or queen snake at least every 4 or 5 feet. I have found all different colors of them. The most common is grey with darker black bands and a hint of orange all over. I have seen an albino, an orange with darker orange bands no black or grey at all , and I have a beautiful light grey one with dark black bands. Is there normally this much color variation in a population?

Hi Andre,
If you are looking for some good information on the Northern Water Snake, History, Color variants, etc. you may want to go to Yahoo and do a search. Type in Northern Water Snake and hit search. There are approx. 234,083 sources of information on them. I hope this helps you.


Thank you
Bill Rodriquez

HEy man u really dont want to keep northern water snakes cause rarelly r they nice but carry a bad oder and when thretened they spray it(worse then skunk)and + they dont live well in captivity and u cant keep them without a licens or permint but good job on the snake catching

Patrick

Originally Posted by littlepretty82

Does anyone know a good website where I can learn about the different color morphs of the northern watersnake? They are very abundant in my area and when I go for a walk along the creek I see another water snake or queen snake at least every 4 or 5 feet. I have found all different colors of them. The most common is grey with darker black bands and a hint of orange all over. I have seen an albino, an orange with darker orange bands no black or grey at all , and I have a beautiful light grey one with dark black bands. Is there normally this much color variation in a population?

Andrea,

Do you happen to have any pictures of the albino one that you saw?

There are alot of Northern Water snakes around where I live as well, on a warm day I can somtimes find several either in or around a creek that I live near.

Here is a link to a few pictures that show the color variations between a few Northern water snakes: http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetol...atersnake.html

Most of the water snakes around here are more of a darker coloration. This is a picture of one that I caught earlier this summer. (lo, hopfully the pic will show up)

I don't have any pics sorry I was just taking a walk with my son when I found the albino I am hoping to see it again though.It was beautiful. It was pinkish white with yellow markings along it's sides no complete bands. I carry a camera now when I go walking in that area. I have 4 water snakes 3 are long term captives 1 is about 2ft., 1 is about 2.5ft., 2 are about 1ft.each they are very good captives. They respond well to handling. Very calm snakes mostly one of the small ones is a lot more jumpy than the others.They have never tried to bite me.Well the youngest one was a little nippy when I first got him but he never bit me and one of the adults used to give love taps he would strike but would tap me with a closed mouth he never tried to bite me with an open mouth. If you can get them on mice they don't smell bad at all. I am working on that now. They get a thorough cleaning every 5 days or so. I have never had a problem with odor.I think Watersnakes are very good pets and do very well in captivity if you know what you are doing and read up on them. They have been given a bad name because people don't get a chance to see how gentile they can be when they are used to people. Just like a corn, ever tried to pick up a wild corn? One word, Scary! I got bit several times attempting to handle wild corns but look at them in captivity very good pets just like a watersnake. I have never been bit by a watersnake.In Virginia it is legal to keep up to five of any one species of native snake in captivity with out a permit as long as they are not endangered.

I have one I caught a couple years ago. He's as tame as can be, and takes pieces of fish right off the tongs. He was just a baby when I caught him, and he's totally habituated now (dosen't bite or musk). Yes, wild examples of nerodia sipedon can be extremely nasty and have a musk that would gag a maggot, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Most adapt pretty well to captivity, especially if you get them when they're small.

PS Even though they are "watersnakes", they need dry land, and should not be kept in an aquatic environment. They love goldfish, feeder guppies or frogs.

Andrea, I don't know all that much about Northerns for the simple reason that I can't get ANYWHERE near one, so consider yourself lucky...lol. I'm originally from west-central pennsylvania (I think it says Erie on here, which is where I'm living now, but anyway...) and we have a few different color variations around here too. I saw one a few years back that I don't know whether it was an albino, but it was definately very very very light. It swam past me when I was fishing and was too far out to get to so I didn't have a chance to see it up close. Most of ours are the variation you see below. Dark, but still lighter than the other shot that was posted earlier in the thread.This shot is also a testament to the typical attitude ours have around here. this one bit me, bit and musked my cousin, and bit my lens in the course of about 2 minutes when I tried to get this shot.