The Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) is a venomous snake found from the southeastern United States. The species is the snake of the genus Agkistrodon also will be currently North America’s only venomous plant.
The 3 sub-species of cottonmouths are observed in northeast Virginia, south throughout the Florida peninsula and west into Arkansas in southern and eastern Oklahoma, Central and East Texas and west and west Georgia. Some inhabitants of cottonmouths also have been discovered away from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts about the islands.
The specy’s scientific name derives from the Greek words ancistro (hooked) and also odon (tooth), also by the Latin piscis (fish) and also voro (to consume ), which translates essentially into”hooked-tooth fish-eater”. The species titles consist of variations such as viper moccasin, swamp moccasin, gapper, or even just the water moccasin.
These names frequently refer to this snake’s attribute hazard screen, in which they’ll often stand their ground and also exposing the white inside of your mouth and gape in the perceived danger.
The mature cottonmouths often achieve over 80 cm (31.5 inches) in length, females tend to be smaller than men. But sometimes, some specimens could attain 180 cm (71 inches) or longer in duration and weight 10 pounds, particularly in the eastern portions of their range.
The cottonmouth includes a wide triangular-shaped head considerably broader than its own neck a normal appearance in vipers. Their coloration is extremely variable and also the patterns on mature cottonmouths frequently become somewhat jaded, leading to an almost entirely strong dark brownish to blackish color.
The snake’s underbelly is a paler color and also yellow-brown blotches. Even though the juvenile cottonmouths possess a colored layout with markings.
Your human body is a brownish base color with reddish to brown rings having an hourglass form, the suggestion of the tail is more yellowish and utilized to glow luring.
Their aggressiveness was greatly exaggerated, they all want to escape the majority of the moment. But when it feels threatened, the cottonmouth engages in a hazard screen that is characteristic in an S-shape using its head back along with scattering the tail and also the mouth open to show the inside making a loud hiss.
Their shared names such as”cottonmouth” along with also “gapper” refer, especially to this exceptional behavior. Various defensive motions incorporate emitting an extremely strong rectal secretion and flattening the human body.
Cottonmouth Subspecies
There aren’t any subspecies currently known, but they vary both in their own range and in skin routine.
Florida cottonmouth (A. p. conanti) – Located in the united states, in southern Georgia and virtually all of Florida, including several islands off the shore.
Western cottonmouth (A. p. leucotome) – Located in America up north in Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana, along with southwest from Alabama across the Gulf of Mexico’s coast, including several coastal islands to subtropical and central Texas.
Eastern cottonmouth (A. p. piscivorous) – Located also just in the USA around Georgia and northeast to North and South Carolina from the Atlantic Coast such as peninsulas and coastal shores.
Cottonmouth Venom
The cottonmouth is an effective cytotoxic venom that destroys the tissue and can be considered more hazardous than that of those Copperhead (A. contortrix). The sting symptoms include swelling, ecchymosis, and pain, and the cottonmouth sting may leave scars and sometimes lead, even deaths are infrequent.
Cottonmouth Diet
The cottonmouth is an ambush predator along with the vast majority of its diet is made up of fish and cows. Nevertheless, the cottonmouth diet includes birds, mammals, other snakes, cicadas, caterpillars, land snails turtles, and American alligators.
Cannibalism is also reported along with the species that may occasionally eat carrion. The specimens feed invertebrates on the event and also enjoy the copperheads or youthful jararacas, youthful cottonmouths utilize their tails to tempt prey such as amphibians. When catfish are captured and consumed, their sharp spines occasionally cause harm.
Cottonmouth Reproduction
The men will normally battle yet another on ritualized struggles for the right to mate with females. Every 2-3 years the cottonmouth snake partners in the spring and the gestation period lasts.
The young are born in August or even September and have a mean period of 8 to 14 inches (22–35 cm). The cottonmouth is ovoviviparous, and females give birth from as much as 20 or 1 to 16 youthful.
But the average litter size is approximately 6 to 2 hatchlings. Girls are reported to defend their litters that were recently produced.
Cottonmouth Conservation
The cottonmouth is categorized as Least Concern species in the IUCN Red List, also as a result of the snake’s broad supply and presumed huge populace. The population trend has been steady As it was assessed in 2007.
But drainage of wetland habitat for both growth along with the persecution of these species has since now taken its toll on the inhabitants. The cottonmouth stays a species in several locations. The cottonmouth is recorded as an endangered species in Indiana.
