Motherload of copperheads

Well we own some private property with a huge pond lots of oak trees and sandy soil. In the past this has always yeilded a few copperheads per year. Tonight within one hour we found 22 in the front yard. All within 100 feet of eachother. Some were found eating frogs, one about a foot or so up in a tree, but most were chillin in the leaves at the base of the oak trees. There were 6 adults and the rest neonates. Appear that they were born in the front yard in the last week. I did not get pics while catching but did get some once i got them back to my house. If anyone is interested I will upload pics in the morning. It was a night so was unable to get good pics while herping. I am still in shock at the numbers we saw this year.

wow i would of ran far away and i want 2 see pictures

That's quite a collection! I once found about 50 cottonmouth neonates in about 30 mins... but not as close together as that!

Justin

sorry busy day i just got all of them sexed well at least the adults, dewormed. It is 12 am and i just got home, but i promise pics tommorrow.

Here are the pics I ended up with 2 Males and 4 Females. I rereleased 2 of the neonates due to injuries they had. I got just the adults sexed last night, got them panacured and gave Droncit injections. I will do the same with the neonats when they get alittle more size on them. The adults have some of the white panacur around the mouth. They all appear dirty right now probably been doing alot of digging, cant wait to see what they look like when they shed. I am pretty excited one of the neonates really has some anery/ axanthic appereance to him. You can definetly spot him out from the rest of the neonates. Unfortinatly he will most likly turn out to be a normal with a lot of black. Either way he will be hot.

2 Males
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ueCounty-3.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ueCounty-5.jpg


Females and neonates
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...eCountyatD.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ueCounty-1.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ueCounty-2.jpg

wow hopefully those dont get in ur house:O

oh my. You are a LOT braver than I am. I would be afraid to pick up even one of the babies. They are pretty looking :) Good luck with them.

i heard the babies are worse when they bite becuase they dont know when to let go?

As far as I know that is a myth. They may not know when to let go, but they also are not capable of producing the amount of venom as the adults. What venom they do produce and release is plenty though to knock down their prey. They usually go for insects, small frogs, or baby mice if they happen to come across them. At that size they will easily feed on small insects. When i found them over half were in the pocess of eating frogs around our stock tank.


Also with venomous reptiles it takes a lot more resposibilty, the goal is to not get bit.

yeah lol, would suck if u got bit!

The babies do have interesting color to them

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ItsMichael805

i heard the babies are worse when they bite becuase they dont know when to let go?

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I heard it was because they can't control how MUCH venom they put out in a strike, whereas adults can....

Who knows either way I don't wanna get bit by ANY of em :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OFRD_GRL

I heard it was because they can't control how MUCH venom they put out in a strike, whereas adults can....

Who knows either way I don't wanna get bit by ANY of em :D

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true that

lol.......... ummm no.

Eventhough they can not control the amount of venom they release if this is true. The amount of venom they have is less then that of an adult.

They have less venom then adults, but they will put more in a bite then an adult would, if that makes sense?

I have always heard that neonates don't know how to control their venom input, they just bite and inject. Where as adults can control their venom as they like to conserve their venom for prey instead of waste it on a predator.

Very Cool.

Gawd I love copperheads!!

If I ever get into hots, it will be for copperheads :D SO PRETTY!!

I have a buddy in Houston that brees copperheads. He has a hypomelanistic copperhead that is neon orange almost. He picked through these guys and took what he wanted and the rest got rereleased back into the wild away from my fathers front yard. Just hours before we found these guys me and my two children were all in that yard with sandels and tenny shoes. Definitly lucky no one got bite. We found 22 starting at 7:00 pm til 12:00 pm. Copperheads are very abundant. I have found almost fourty this year alone. Some really nice and some not. I just move them off the road so they dont get hit. Unless they are really nice them my friend gets them. I beleive I might have found a anery/axanthic copperhead. Time will tell as it ages alittle more. But the snake is loaded with black and the belly is very black as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Neal

They have less venom then adults, but they will put more in a bite then an adult would, if that makes sense?

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It makes sense, but I've taken a dry-bite from a pretty young water moccasin, only time I've been hit by a hot. Yes, I was a brave, dumb kid growing up haha