Northern water snake
| Northern water snake | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Colubridae |
| Subfamily: | Natricinae |
| Genus: | Nerodia |
| Species: | N. sipedon |
| Binomial name | |
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Nerodia sipedon (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Subspecies | |
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4, see text |
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| Synonyms | |
4, see text
The northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) is a species of large, nonvenomous, common snake in the Colubridae family that is native to North America.
The northern water snake can grow up to 135 cm (4 ft 5 in) in total length. Per one study, average total length of females was 81.4 cm (2 ft 8 in) while that of males was 69.6 cm (2 ft 3 in). Per known studies of this species in the wild, adult females can weigh between 158.9 and 408 g (5.61 and 14.39 oz) in average body mass while the smaller male can average from 80.8 to 151 g (2.85 to 5.33 oz). The largest females can weigh up to 560 g (20 oz) while the largest males can scale 370 g (13 oz). They can be brown, gray, reddish, or brownish-black. They have dark crossbands on their necks and dark stripes and blotches on the rest of their bodies, often leading to misidentification as cottonmouths or copperheads by novices. They darken as they age. Some will become almost completely black. The belly of this snake also varies in color. It can be white, yellow, or gray. Usually it also has reddish or black crescents.
Water snakes are non-venomous and harmless to humans, but superficially resemble the venomous Water Moccasin and are often killed un-necessarily as a result of this mistaken identity. The two can be easily distinguished by morphological traits: the water snake has a longer, more slender body and a flattened head the same width as the neck with round pupils and no heat-sensing pits. The Water Moccasin has a fatter body, a wedge-shaped head with prominent venom glands that is wider than the neck, cat-like pupils and heat-sensing pits between the eyes and the nostrils.
Ordered alphabetically.
It is found throughout eastern and central North America, from southern Ontario and southern Quebec in the north, to Texas and Florida in the south. It has been introduced in California where it is considered an invasive species likely to compete with native giant garter snakes Thamnopis gigas.
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Wikipedia