My name is Albert and I’ve 30 years of experience working with venomous retiles.
I live here in Florida and I’m talking about the species of snakes that are found here.
In Florida there are two groups of venomous snakes. One is known as the crotalidae, which are the pit vipers.
The other is the elapidae. In this group there is only a single species presented in Florida, which is the Coral Snake.
The elapidea consist of cobras, mambas and kraits, which are found in other parts of the world.
The other group, the crotalidae consists of the pit vipers,which are dominate in North and South America.
There are only five species of pit vipers living in Florida, three of them are rattlesnakes which belong to the crotalidae family.
The other two are the Copperhead and the Water Moccasin, which belong to the genies of the ahkistradon.
This snakes have heat sensor pits located between their nostrils and their eyes.
They are able to pic up thermal images of warm blooded animals, enabling this snakes to strike at them.
That’s way they are called pit vipers.
The first snake we’re going to talk about here in Florida is the Copperhead.
Copperheads are mainly found in North Florida. They are very beautiful snakes, which I’m most fascinated with.
The copperhead has elliptical pupils with a coppery colored iris, with many vines running through it.
They have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen on a snake.
Baby copperheads are born with a bright green tail, which enables the young snakes to catch their prey very easily through wiggling their tail.
They hold the tail up in the air and wiggle it from side to side, making it look like a worm.
Most frogs or small mammals which prey upon worms, will try to attack the tail, enabling the copperhead to grab himself a meal.
The copperheads coloration reaches from red to earth tones.
This snakes have an hour glass pattern on its back, narrowing towards the top.
The copperhead is the least venomous of Florida’s venomous snakes.
The five species of Copperheads found in North America are:
The Norther and the Southern Copperhead, Ossage-, Transpacus- and the Broad Banded Copperhead.
The Southern Copperhead can be found in Florida.
The vertical pupils of the copperheads will dilate under low light situation, becoming round and black.
Copperheads and rattlesnakes live in large denning habitats.
Human encroachments results in many snakes been found in residential areas.
If people have this many snakes on their property, they should call a professional to have them removed.
Years ago, I was called to remove this snakes from a friends property.
As a result of removing this snakes, I had remove over 250 copperhead snakes in just two weeks from her property.