It's been some time since my grand visit to Flamingo Bay but in addition to the southern leopard frog eggs, and the sea of toads we came across two nice cottonmouths within a short distance. This is a gorgeous snake that gets a really bad rap. I admit I have had "snake issues" in the past. Working in the rainforest in Panama helped but I still wasn't exactly cured. Before I moved to SC from New England everyone warned me about the aggressive cottonmouths that were everywhere and would attack for no reason. I wasn't exactly feeling confident when I first was doing field work here. What I quickly learned is that, like many wildlife stories, it was way off base. That they are quite common here is certainly true, that you can expect them to be aggressive and attack you is utterly ridiculous. Take these two snakes for instance. The one with the tell-tale open mouth posture (the cotton mouth) sat like that for about 5 min or more while several of us took photos and video. That's my experience so far with all of them (as long as you're not stepping on them or some such thing). We get them in our box traps and pit fall traps and they give you the open mouth posture, you move them out of the trap in a safe manner, and they go about their business. Hate to admit with this one we even moved it into better light for the sake of the videographer we had with us and it still did nothing aggressive. Just sat there and posed for the camera. The second one was pretty much the same, it finally closed its mouth so I could get a head shot. I've come a long way with my "snake issues." I even have a pet snake (thanks to a grad student that couldn't have it in his apartment) that I took to help with my issues. But one thing I am absolutely convinced of is that cottonouths are gorgeous animals that have a really bad rep.
It's been some time since my grand visit to Flamingo Bay but in addition to the southern leopard frog eggs, and the sea of toads we came across two nice cottonmouths within a short distance. This is a gorgeous snake that gets a really bad rap. I admit I have had "snake issues" in the past. Working in the rainforest in Panama helped but I still wasn't exactly cured. Before I moved to SC from New England everyone warned me about the aggressive cottonmouths that were everywhere and would attack for no reason. I wasn't exactly feeling confident when I first was doing field work here. What I quickly learned is that, like many wildlife stories, it was way off base. That they are quite common here is certainly true, that you can expect them to be aggressive and attack you is utterly ridiculous. Take these two snakes for instance. The one with the tell-tale open mouth posture (the cotton mouth) sat like that for about 5 min or more while several of us took photos and video. That's my experience so far with all of them (as long as you're not stepping on them or some such thing). We get them in our box traps and pit fall traps and they give you the open mouth posture, you move them out of the trap in a safe manner, and they go about their business. Hate to admit with this one we even moved it into better light for the sake of the videographer we had with us and it still did nothing aggressive. Just sat there and posed for the camera. The second one was pretty much the same, it finally closed its mouth so I could get a head shot. I've come a long way with my "snake issues." I even have a pet snake (thanks to a grad student that couldn't have it in his apartment) that I took to help with my issues. But one thing I am absolutely convinced of is that cottonouths are gorgeous animals that have a really bad rep.
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