- I'm Coyote Peterson, tonight we're
in the Florida Everglades and sometimes
the best way to find reptiles at night is some good,
old-fashioned night-herping.
We're gonna cruise the roads and see
what we can come up with.
You ready to do this?
- (snap) Yup.
- All right, we're cruisin' for snakes.
(loud drum music)
So night-herping is when you're actually
out looking for reptiles.
Herpetology is the study of reptiles,
so kind of a slang term is night-herping.
And what we're doing right now is
just cruising along at a slow speed, about 10 miles
an hour and I'm keeping my eyes peeled.
Mark, I hope you're watching too.
- Oh yeah.
- For anything that may be slithering across the road
or just laying there.
If something looks like a stick or a piece of rope,
it certainly is neither of the two, but likely a snake.
Oh, there's something in the road right here.
What's that? Oh, it's an owl.
- Right?
- Yeah, that was an owl. - [Mark] Yeah.
- Pull up slow though, it might have been eating something.
- [Voiceover] That was a barn owl, right?
- [Mark] Yeah, it probably got a snake.
- Yeah, that looked like a barn owl.
- [Mark] It probably got something.
- Yeah, you see that?
You can find anything out here on a deserted road
like this.
And you can see, there's no lights,
we've got water on both sides of the road.
So that means snakes will come up
out of the underbrush and basically lay out
on the warm asphalt.
Stop, stop, stop! Right there, right there!
Get out! Get out!
Oh, oh, oh!
It's a coral snake.
All right, hold on, these guys are pretty quick.
Bring the camera around this way.
Oh, look at that!
Absolutely beautiful!
Now this is one of the coolest snakes here in the Everglades
and this is actually also the most venomous snake
we could have encountered tonight.
Oh, look at that!
Not an enormous one, but still absolutely beautiful.
Now there's an old saying, "Red on black, friend of Jack,
"red on yellow, kill a fellow."
And sure enough, you got the red on yellow there,
which means this is the coral snake.
And, you gotta be real careful, now these guys
don't have fangs like pit vipers do,
they actually have fixed fangs.
So, a lot of the bites that happen,
they actually kind of have to latch on
to inject their venom.
But, their venom is considerably more potent
than that of the rattlesnake.
And there are very few deaths that have occured
from coral snake bites, ah, but it's definitely
still a snake you need to have respect for.
Now, the easiest way to come across a coral snake
is to do exactly what we're doing tonight,
a little good, old-fashioned night-herping.
And these snakes are pretty elusive.
They spend most of their days hiding underneath
palm fronds, logs, or anywhere that they can
stay tucked away from potential predators.
Now, I don't wanna try to handle this snake,
it is just too small, and I don't wanna risk
taking a bite.
And, most of the time they don't inject too much venom,
but being the most venomous snake in the United States,
that's not a chance I'm willing to take.
I'm sweatin' like a mad man, awesome encounter
with the coral snake, let's see what else we can find
out here on the road, night-herping.
You ready? - [Mark] Yup.
- Let's do it.
You may be wondering why we're looking for reptiles
on a man-made road.
And that's because the asphalt's actually warmer
than the surrounding area.
So, they're coming up out of the irrigation ditches
to heat themselves up.
Here we go, stop, stop, stop, stop.
- [Mark] Whoa.
- [Coyote] We got a snake right there.
(car door squeaks)
All right, just approach slow.
All right, it's a water moccasin.
And this is another one of the venomous species
that's here in the Everglades.
And one of the ones you're most likely to encounter
while out on the roads at night.
Wow, not real big, but that doesn't mean
it's any less dangerous.
And the way you can tell it's a pit viper, is they have
these little holes, just behind the nostril
and just in front of the eye.
And, they basically use those to sense the heat
in their prey.
So right now, this snake is sensing a big warm mass,
and that would be me.
And, it's telling him, "You are too big to be prey,
"and most likely, a predator."
Now, see these snakes can grow
to almost four feet in length, and they've got
a good set of fangs they can kind of jut out.
Oh, see that?
He just bit my snake stick.
Now, this is the only aquatic species of pit viper
that lives in the United States.
Now, people often encounter these snakes
on their boats or around their docks.
And people fear these snakes, because they think
it's a snake, it's aggressive, it's gonna attack me.
Honestly, these snakes really just wanna be left alone.
All you have to do if you see one, is back away slowly,
give it it's space.
It's more afraid of you than you should be of it.
All right wow, quite the encounter with one
of the coolest snakes here in the Florida Everglades,
the water moccasin.
All right, I wanna move this guy off the road,
so he doesn't get hit by a car.
If you've got any questions about these snakes for me,
leave them in the comments below.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild,
we'll see you on the next adventure.
All right, let's move him off to the side here.
You guys ready?
All right, there you go buddy.
We'll see you later.
If you thought that was one wild adventure,
check out these other animal encounters.
And don't forget, subscribe to follow me
and the crew on this season of Breaking Trail.
(animal calls)