What Kind Of Snake Is This? - WV (Eastern Panhandle)

[Eazyyyb]

Hey guys, today on my way home from a friend's house, I noticed a snake trying to cross the road, so I decided to stop and help (it was not thankful)

Here are the pics i got of it, just wondering if someone could identify it

[Albert Clark]

Not sure but looks like a copperhead. Shape of the head makes me lean towards venomous. No rattle at the end of the tail. Copperhead . Final answer.

[Eazyyyb]

Not sure but looks like a copperhead. Shape of the head makes me lean towards venomous. No rattle at the end of the tail. Copperhead . Final answer.

wow if thats a copperhead then i need to learn to distinguish better, because i let that thing get very close to tagging me!

[John1982]

Not copperhead.

[Eazyyyb]

Not copperhead.

thank goodness. I thought they had bigger heads and brighter colors

[Albert Clark]

OK looked up copperhead and it is not a copperhead. The triangular head shape is suspicious to me. maybe the angle of the pic. It does have markings on the dorsum similar to a bull snake.

[rlditmars]

Definitely non venomous. The head shape is just flattening for posturing sake. Looks like a rat snake though I am not sure which phase. How long was it? The larger a black rat snake gets, the less you see its pattern as it just becomes so dark the pattern is barely visible. But when they are juveniles the have a good deal of patterning visible. Thanks for sharing.

[John1982]

Rlditmars nailed it. No surprise that many nonvenomous are excellent venomous imitators. We know how harmless their bites truly are, it's basically their only means of survival once spotted by potential predators - bluff out or become a meal. You saved a subadult black rat snake who was doing their best imitation of big and bad to keep from getting eaten.

[bcr229]

Yep, juvenile black rat. Those are the snakes you want to keep around as they're cannibalistic and will kill and eat the copperheads and timber rattlers that are also found in WV, in addition to doing a great job on the moles, rats, mice, rabbits, etc.

We have at least two six footers living in my yard, usually in the crawl space under the house or in the woodpile. When they get older they're pretty chill, we've had to pick them up and move them aside more than once so they don't get run over by the lawnmower.

[Eazyyyb]

Yep, juvenile black rat. Those are the snakes you want to keep around as they're cannibalistic and will kill and eat the copperheads and timber rattlers that are also found in WV, in addition to doing a great job on the moles, rats, mice, rabbits, etc.

We have at least two six footers living in my yard, usually in the crawl space under the house or in the woodpile. When they get older they're pretty chill, we've had to pick them up and move them aside more than once so they don't get run over by the lawnmower.

That's what I thought when I started looking into it, but I was waiting for you to jump in hahah thanks