Redbelly Water Snake (Nerodia erythrogaster erythrogaster.)

Redbelly Water Snake. Location: Mason Farm Biological Reserve, Orange County, North Carolina, United States
Photograph by Patrick Coin. Some rights reserved. (view image details)

REDBELLY WATER SNAKE FACTS

Description
The Redbelly Water Snake are heavy-bodied snakes with brown, reddish-brown or almost black back. The underside and throat have strong reddish orange, or pale reddish brown color. Juveniles are grayish-brown with dark crossbands and blotches, with yellow or pinkish underside.

Other Names
Plainbelly Water Snake

Size
length 75cm - 120cm long

Environment
found near a permanent slow-moving waters - lakes, streams, ponds, rivers, and drainage ditches. It prefers habitat with trees along the water edge.

Food
eats mainly frogs. Also feeds on small fish.

Breeding
This snake bears live young (ovoviviparous). Females give birth to 11 - 30 young in August to October. Young are about 25cm.

Range
Florida in the northern peninsula and panhandle, southern Alabama and along the Atlantic coast to Virginia.

Notes
The Redbelly Water Snake is non-venomous and harmless to humans. When threatened it will try to flee, and may dive under the water or hide in a hole or under a rock. If cornered it will defend itself by hissing, biting, and excreting a foul-smelling musk.

Classification

Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata (Serpentes)
Family:	Colubridae
Genus:	Nerodia
Species:	erythrogaster erythrogaster.
Common Name:	Redbelly Water Snake

Relatives in same Genus
  Mangrove Salt Marsh Snake (N. clarkii compressicauda)
  Atlantic Salt Marsh Snake (N. clarkii taeniata)
  Banded Water Snake (N. fasciata fasciata)
  Florida Banded Water Snake (N. fasciata pictiventris)
  Diamondback Water Snake (N. rhombifer)
  Northern Water Snake (N. sipedon)

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