Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon)
Description: Northern watersnakes range in size from 24 to 55 inches. They are fairly dark-colored snakes and may be brown, tan or grayish. The coloration is much more vivid in young and wet specimens. Their back and sides have a series of square blotches that alternate and may merge to form bands. Their scales are keeled and the anal plate is divided. Adult females tend to be larger than adult males. This species is often confused with the venomous cottonmouth (water moccasin), but cottonmouths have bands instead of blotches and their distribution is generally restricted to the Coastal Plain.
Habitat: They inhabit a variety of aquatic habitats including lakes, ponds, marshes, rivers, and streams.
Range: Northern Watersnakes are found throughout eastern and central North America. In our region, they are restricted to the Piedmont and mountains.
Diet: They primarily feed on amphibians and fish.
Reproduction: Male northern water snakes are able to reproduce when they are 21 months old. Female snakes begin to breed when they are three years old and produce a single litter each year. Most reproduction occurs while in or near their hibernation sites between mid-April and mid-June. Temperature and latitude may cause variation in these times.
Gestation can last anywhere from 3 to 5 months. Young snakes are born alive (not laid as eggs) from July to September. The litter ranges in size from 4 to 99 offspring. Larger females tend to have larger litters.
Status: Northern watersnakes are abundant in our region and are not protected throughout most of it. They are protected throughout the state of Georgia.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Reptilia - Reptiles
»» Order: Squamata - Scaled Reptiles
»» Suborder: Serpentes
»» Superfamily: Colubroidea
»» Family: Colubridae - Colubrids
»» Genus: Nerodia
»» Species: Nerodia sipedon - Common Water Snakes
»» Subspecies: Nerodia sipedon sipedon - Northern Water Snake
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Common Water Snake", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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