Shape of the head says eats fish, frog & mice (potentially venomous). Do NOT put into your pants, not even to make huge joke. More info required: 1. What region specifically (state or large city area)? 2. How did you catch it? 3. Aggressive? 4. Was it cold when you caught it? 5. Where is it now? Wasn't it in that bucket? Honey, where's the bucket that was on the table in the garage?
Region? Central Florida. How did I catch it?Agressive? Didn't give it the chance. I was cleaning my yard when I saw it close to my house coiled by a wall so I ran and scooped it against the wall. Details weren't fully thought out.. I had to yell for my neighbor to get me something flat to cover the bucket. I let it loose by a lake.
Have to get a better look, and honestly know where you found it (state/province/etc). Kind'f looks like a Moccasin at a quick glance. They're endemic to the southeastern U.S., have fairly girthy bodies with a similar solid dark color. Broad, triangular heads, and heat 'pits' on their faces like most vipers. The insides of their mouths are snow-white, which is why we also refer to them as "cottonmouths" down here. It's also easy to misidentify because there are similar looking snakes in its habitat. If the inside of its mouth is white, it is indeed a dangerous breed. It can also most certainly escape that bucket, btw.
Being from Florida that was my first thought on what kind of snake it is. But without knowing where they caught it and what type of area they caught it in ie... woodland, grassy, near water, it's really hard to say with any certainty.
I think cloudgather (and the numerous other people) may be right
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There's not much to go off of in this picture other than it's dark colored on top (many snake are or can appear to be), seems to have some minor speckling, and has a girthy body and arrow-shaped head
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That doesn't mean automatically that it is a cottonmouth, but that's certain a possibility -- and means it's a very good thing you got it away from your house without incident
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It could potentially also be a plain-bellied water snake (or a few other candidates), but generally not the type of thing you want to mess around and find out
A water moccasin is mean tempered usually so if wasn't cold/cool out and it stayed placid that's a decent indication in and of itself. Not definitive, but good. I hope by now it's been released well away from where you are. In the future if you find a snake like that an easy, relatively safe test is getting a long stick and tapping the ground near the snake. Water moccasins will strike at it showing that lovely distinctive mouth color. Plus side is that regardless of whether it is one or not you can know with some certainty straight away. Be aware though cotton mouths have been known to literally chase people just to attack them. Not something you really want to be playing with if you can avoid it.
I never knew the chasing thing about cottonmouths.... i thought that was just black mambas and sometimes king cobras. Neither of which I'd ever ever ever fuck with. Black mambas in particular are incredibly nasty about it.... they know they can't eat you, they do it just to be territorial dicks... and they can slither faster than most people can run. A king cobra will rear up and stare at you in the face and if you hold your ground it'll prolly show you the same respect. King cobras are unlike any other snake though; they can move their eyes and they aren't actually cobras.
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There's not much to go off of in this picture other than it's dark colored on top (many snake are or can appear to be), seems to have some minor speckling, and has a girthy body and arrow-shaped head
.
That doesn't mean automatically that it is a cottonmouth, but that's certain a possibility -- and means it's a very good thing you got it away from your house without incident
.
It could potentially also be a plain-bellied water snake (or a few other candidates), but generally not the type of thing you want to mess around and find out