Cottonmouth Snake Facts and Information

Aside from their characteristic white mouths, their vertical pupils and dark stripes next to each nostril can also help you identify cottonmouth snakes. They range in color from dark brown or black to olive and yellow, though it can be complicated to identify a cottonmouth snake based solely on its coloring. Younger cottonmouths will have bold, striking patterns and bright yellow tail tips, but these tend to fade as the snakes age. They have thick bodies, which are muscular and covered in ridged or keeled scales. They also have a blocky, triangular head shape and large jowls.

Cottonmouths are fairly large snakes that should be easy to spot if one crosses your path. They can grow to be between two and four feet long, but in areas of the United States that are located further south, cottonmouths have been found that are upwards of six feet in length. This helps differentiate them from the smaller, non-venomous water snakes common in the same areas that cottonmouths are.

Cottonmouth snakes are native to North America and can be found from the midwest to the southeastern United States. They’re especially common in states like Alabama, Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia, where the weather is wet and warm. There are a lot of small bodies of water where they can hide and find food.

Cottonmouths are aquatic snakes and thrive in areas that have permanent, slow-moving water sources. They live in regions with many aquatic wetland areas like marshes, swamps, ponds, and streams. If you’re in an area with a lot of brackish water or drainage ditches, cottonmouths are likely living there.

Adult cottonmouths have a varied diet, including insects, fish, baby alligators, amphibians, and small mammals. They have even been known to eat other, smaller cottonmouths that share their same territory. They’ll strike their victims with a venomous bite, and if they don’t succumb right away, the cottonmouth will track them until they do. Because it’s a pit viper and has facial pits on the sides of its nose, the cottonmouth can sense body heat using infrared and hunts in the dark when most other animals can’t.

Cottonmouth snakes are known for being fairly aggressive and not backing down when threatened. They’ll gape their mouths and reveal the bright white interior that gives them their name as a threat display. One of the best ways to distinguish a cottonmouth from a harmless water snake is to look at how it’s swimming. Cottonmouths tend to swim on the water’s surface with their bodies about halfway submerged, whereas water snakes will swim under the water. If you can see a snake on the surface, the odds are high that it’s a cottonmouth.

Cottonmouth snakes mate during the spring in April or May. This is when the males will be the most aggressive and territorial, so keep a sharp eye out during these months if you live in cottonmouth territory. Females have a gestation period of about five months and give birth once every two or three years. They will bear litters of 10 to 20 live young every time. Since juvenile cottonmouths go off on their own as soon as they’re born, most of them don’t live to adulthood and are eaten by other, larger predators.

Cottonmouth bites are less venomous than a rattlesnake. For the most part, a cottonmouth bite won’t kill a healthy adult, but it can cause severe complications if you don’t get treatment right away. They can also deliver dry bites, which don’t give off any venom, but it’s impossible to know if that has happened when you’re bitten. It’s best to treat any snake bite as if it were venomous and get medical attention as soon as possible.

The venomous cottonmouth has a similar appearance to some non-venomous snakes. These can include the banded water snake and the northern water snake. Because of this, snake identification is incredibly important to make sure you stay safe.

There are a few distinct differences between the two. If you view the snake from the top of the head, you can’t see the eyes of a cottonmouth, whereas you can see the the eyes of a water snake. Water snakes have round pupils and cottonmouths have thin pupils.

You may also mistake a cottonmouth for  a copperhead snake. To tell the difference, adult copperheads keep their color while adult cottonmouths loose the bright colors and patterns from their youth.

Cottonmouths have heat-sensing pits between their nostrils and eyes. They also rest their heads elevated and off the ground — neither of which water snakes have or do.

Cottonmouth snakes have a varied diet. Primarily, they eat fish, frogs, and other amphibians, but also will eat mammals (like mice, rats, and rabbits), birds, lizards, and other snakes.

Yes, cottonmouth snakes are venomous. Most often a bite won’t kill a healthy adult, but complications can occur if you don’t get immediate medical treatment.