Florida Banded Water Snake
(
Nerodia fasciata pictiventris )
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Florida Banded Water Snake in the Big Cypress National Preserve, Collier County, Florida
Photograph by Vincent P. Lucas. Some rights reserved. (view image details)
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Florida Banded Water Snake
Photograph by United States Geological Survey. License: Public Domain. (view image details)
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REPTILE FACTS
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Description
The Florida Banded Water Snake is a stout snake with black, brown, or red bands across the body. The narrower bands are pale tan, gray, or reddish. sometimes there is a black stripe down the back. The markings darken with age and banding becomes less prominent. The underside is yellow with red or black markings. Juveniles have red or black crossbands on light background.
Other Names
Florida Water Snake
Size
average size 61cm - 107cm.
Environment
shallow waters of swamps, marshes, ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers.
Food
fish, frogs, and aquatic invertebrates
Breeding
litters of 20-30 live young are born in late spring through summer. The young are 19 - 27cm long at birth.
Range
throughout most of Florida peninsula, extreme southeastern Georgia and Brownsville, Texas (introduced)
Notes
The Florida Banded Water Snake is harmless, although it defends itself by biting and giving off foul smelling musk.
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Classification
| Class: | Reptilia | | Order: | Squamata (Serpentes) | | Family: | Colubridae | | Genus: | Nerodia | | Species: | fasciata pictiventris | | Common Name: | Florida Banded Water Snake |
Relatives in same Genus
Mangrove Salt Marsh Snake (N. clarkii compressicauda)
Atlantic Salt Marsh Snake (N. clarkii taeniata)
Redbelly Water Snake (N. erythrogaster erythrogaster.)
Banded Water Snake (N. fasciata fasciata)
Diamondback Water Snake (N. rhombifer)
Northern Water Snake (N. sipedon)
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