♪♪ >> Mills: [ Chuckles ] So, this is a little American alligator.

It's not a crocodile.

Okay.

Here we go.

Here's a couple more.

In fact, one of them just flew.

[ Rattling ] I think this is the image that most people have when they think about snakes of the Low Country -- a big, defensive rattlesnake like this.

In reality, most of the snakes that we see are small and inoffensive.

You know, having snakes around is a good thing, because having lots of snakes is a good measure of ecological health.

In this episode, we're gonna look at a variety of snake species and talk a little bit about how we can live in harmony with them.

♪♪ Some of our Low Country snakes are really aquatic, and they spend most of their time in the water.

Now, I set some traps a couple days ago, and I'm really excited to see what's in them.

There's a lot of little frogs and, uh, tadpoles and little fish, and that's all really good food for snakes.

Okay, so, here is a trap.

Now, this is a slightly different type of trap.

I haven't really used one of these very often.

This is actually a type of fish trap, but it should work pretty well for catching snakes, as well.

I don't see any snakes in it.

But there sure are some fish in there -- some bowfin, looks like some blue-spotted sunfish, maybe a crawfish or two.

You see how this works.

It's got a little funnel, and animals can swim into it and then get caught inside, so...

Here's another trap.

It's on the edge of a little bit deeper water.

Oh, there we go.

So, here's our first snake.

This is a nonvenomous snake.

Let me pop this open and get a look at him.

There's a couple fish in there, too.

First thing to do is make sure it's not a venomous species, and it's not.

And this is a banded water snake.

And banded water snakes are a little bit feisty.

See if I can figure out a way to get him by the head.

But, again, not a cottonmouth.

A nonvenomous snake, and one of the ways I can tell it's not a cottonmouth -- it has this -- what looks like stitching on the face right here.

Also, the head's not big enough.

It's got a relatively narrow head when you compare it to a cottonmouth, which would have a big, wedge-shaped head.

Now, this is an animal that will eat fish, frogs, salamanders -- really, just about anything that it can catch in here in the water.

It also has a really pungent musk.

[ Sniffs ] And -- Uh, I wish you could smell this.

[ Chuckles ] I mean, it's quite impressive.

And if you handle a water snake, you smell like water snakes for quite a while.

Beautiful belly on this snake.

Banded water snakes have a lot of color on them.

Another thing that a cottonmouth, or water moccasin or cottonmouth, would not have are these bright colors.

Anyway, really common snake.

This is one of those that if you live around water, this is one that you're gonna see pretty commonly.

Let's go catch some more snakes.

♪♪ Another fish, but no snakes.

♪♪ I see some movement in this trap.

Another snake.

Boy, that's a big one.

Wow!

Another banded water snake, but, boy, this is a bruiser.

This is about as big as they get.

I bet that fish would like to get out of there.

So, this will be interesting.

Obviously, the bigger the snake, the bigger the bite, too, so even though this is a nonvenomous snake, they bite pretty hard.

So, let's see if I can do this without...

Boy, this is about as big as banded water snakes get.

And the first thing I notice -- This is a female, undoubtedly.

I can tell by size.

And I'll tell you what else.

This is a gravid female.

She's full of babies.

This time of year, big female banded water snakes like this have live young.

And she might have a bunch of them -- 20 or more.

And, you know, they're about this long or so.

And they look pretty much just like the adult -- little, miniature versions of the adult.

I'm being a little careful, because, like I said, these bite.

Now, an awful lot of these are killed as cottonmouths, and you can kind of understand why.

I mean, this looks a lot like a water moccasin or cottonmouth.

And it's got a heavy body, but part of the reason its body is so heavy is because it's full of babies.

And also, I'm pretty sure it just ate a fish or something, and I don't want it to throw that up on me, which they sometimes do.

And mostly, I don't want to hurt her, especially since she's full of babies.

But wonderful animal, and this is one that could eat a -- probably a full-grown bullfrog or at least a half-grown bullfrog as well as fish and salamanders, things like that.

Wow!

This is a real beauty.

Man, I can't believe I haven't been bitten by this yet.

[ Chuckles ] This is a really, really gentle female.

Why, that's two banded water snakes already.

Let's let her crawl off and go have her babies.

♪♪ Here's another one.

Whoa!

Good action.

So, there's plenty to eat for these water snakes, that's for sure.

Looks like more bowfin and some sunfish of some sort.

Oh, my gosh.

Look at this salamander!

So, this is an amphiuma.

This is a big amphiuma.

In fact, just about as big as they get.

It's a salamander, so it's not a snake, even though it's shaped a little bit like that.

But it's a big, aquatic salamander with little, tiny -- in fact, it has four legs and two tiny, little toes on each foot.

Two-toed amphiuma.

There's also a bowfin in there a couple little sunfish.

Now, let me tell you what really excites me about seeing this.

There's a snake that eats these things.

It's called a mud snake.

And it is a big snake.

And it can actually grab these things and swallow them.

I mean, it is a spectacular predator, and it's one of the few things that can eat an amphiuma, so the fact that this guy's here means that there may be some mud snakes around.

Let's get this guy out and get a good look at him.

♪♪ Wow.

This is a spectacular animal.

Look how big the head is, and notice the little tiny.

And they're really aquatic, but they do real well in the mud, too.

So, this is an animal that can burrow kind of in muddy areas, and even when the pond gets very, very dry, it can go underground and sort of hide and wait until conditions are better, until the rains come back.

I can see how he's disappearing into the mud.

Boy, they are strong.

Let me see if I can pull him out right here.

There we go.

[ Chuckles ] You know, you got to be in exactly the right place at the right time or use a trap like we're using or you'd never see one of these big salamanders.

And they're really common in certain wetlands.

Boy, that is one impressive animal, but not a snake.

Let's go see what else we can find.

♪♪ Yeah, this is what I was after.

Wow!

So, this is a mud snake.

This is that big, impressive snake that I was talking about that eats those aquatic salamanders.

Now, these don't bite unless you've been handling amphiumas which, actually, I have, but I'm just gonna kind of take my chances.

They're nonvenomous.

They're beautiful snakes.

Look how shiny.

Let's see if I can get him unhooked.

Set this trap down.

So, that is a mud snake.

Now, mud snakes eat almost exclusively amphiumas.

Now, when they're younger, they'll eat smaller salamanders, but when they reach adult size, like this big female, and I'm sure this is a female by size -- females get bigger than males do -- they eat amphiumas.

And, you know, they're obviously very muscular snakes, 'cause that is a big, strong salamander.

There's a couple kind of neat things about these.

One is they have a tendency to use the tip of their tail.

They have a spine on the tip of their tail, and they may use this to kind of poke the amphiumas into swallowing position when they're dealing with these unwieldy salamanders.

And if they kill and eat one of these things, I mean, it takes quite a while.

It may take them an hour to completely swallow one.

One of the coolest things about mud snakes is one of the myths that's associated with them.

This is the famous hoop snake.

And hoop snakes supposedly -- Now, again, this is a myth.

This isn't true -- will form into a perfect hoop, and if you get too close to them, they will roll after you.

And the faster you run, the faster the hoop chases you.

And then, eventually, as the hoop gets close enough, it flies into this arrow-like projection and, I guess, flies through the air and then sticks you with this spine.

And supposedly, according to this myth, that spine is deadly venomous and it will kill you instantly.

Obviously, that's not true.

It's just a story, but it's [chuckles] kind of ridiculous some of the stories people come up with that are associated with snakes.

Now, mud snakes would be eaten by alligators and probably kingsnakes.

And when they're small, of course, birds and lots of other predators would get them.

Now, once they're this size -- I mean, this snake's almost five feet long, so there's probably not a lot of things that can eat This one except for alligators.

I'll tell you what, guys.

This is a treat.

This is one of those snakes you can go your whole life and never see.

Snakes can be pretty hard to find.

They spend the majority of their time hiding, and the only time they're really active is when they're trying to find food or when they're trying to find a mate.

But I've got some pretty good ideas where we can turn some up.

♪♪ Now, this is the type of microhabitat where you find a particular kind of snake.

There's one species that loves to live underneath the bark of upright pine stumps like this.

So, what we need to do is just kind of look underneath the bark of these trees.

And sometimes, you can just kind of pull the bark off.

And yeah.

This is exactly what I was after.

So, this is a scarlet kingsnake, and this is one of their favorite habitats.

They feed on skinks, and skinks have a tendency to get underneath the bark of these upright stumps.

This is also a great place for them to thermoregulate.

Now, boy, talk about a beautiful snake.

Now, of course, this is not a coral snake.

This is the scarlet kingsnake.

I want to make sure he didn't go in a hole or something.

Peel him off.

I'm surprised he didn't fall off the stump.

So, scarlet kingsnakes look like coral snakes.

But they're actually quite different.

In fact, there's a great rhyme.

"Red on yellow, kill a fellow.

Red on black, friend of Jack."

And this, of course, is red on black.

The other way you can tell is this snake has a red nose.

A coral snake would have a black nose.

Also, coral snakes are quite a bit bigger than this.

This is an adult snake.

And one of the misconceptions that people have is that all small snakes are baby snakes.

In reality, about a third of our snake species never get over 12 inches long.

So, a lot of them stay small for their entire lives.

Now, scarlet kings are really common snakes.

They're a good example of what we would term "hidden biodiversity" -- an animal that is there but we just never see it because they're either underground or they're inside a rotten stump like this.

And we just rarely see them.

All right.

So, I'm gonna let this guy go back in.

I tore a little piece of his bark off, but there's still a lot of habitat for him to live in.

♪♪ Okay, you guys know I love to flip stuff, 'cause that's a way to uncover all kinds of creatures -- reptiles, amphibians, and all kinds of other things.

So, piles of logs and stuff like this can be really, really good.

Oh, look at this.

So, not a snake but evidence that a snake was here.

In fact, these are snake eggs, I'm sure.

They feel papery.

Got kind of a leathery feel to them.

Now, these hatched long ago.

They don't look like they were eaten by a predator.

They look like they hatched.

I'll be they're black racer.

They feel like they have little granules of salt on the outside, which makes me think they're black racer eggs, and the clutch size is about right, too.

There's a bunch of them here.

Looks like there's probably 15 or 16 or so.

And sometimes, racers will use rotten logs like this.

That's pretty dry now, but probably when these were laid, they were -- you know, it was much more moist.

And these incubated for about two months.

And then the baby snake slit through the eggshell and then crawled out, was on its own.

Now, most snakes don't really take care of their eggs.

They lay their eggs, and then they crawl off.

And the eggs and the babies are on their own.

So, baby snakes actually have an egg tooth, and they slice through the leathery shell of the egg, and then they pop their head out, sit there for several hours, and start to breathe air.

And then, eventually, they crawl out and start life on their own.

♪♪ Oh!

Here is the ultimate snake.

So, he was crawling along the edge of this planted field when I saw him.

This is a coachwhip snake, and I'm gonna get him behind the head, because these guys have a tendency to bite.

Oh, what a magnificent snake!

When you talk about form and function -- long, slender, athletic snake.

This is one that feeds on lizards and birds and things like that.

Huge eyes.

It feeds during the day, skates around, and looks for things that are moving and then zips over and catches them.

Again, it can eat birds, small mammals, lizards.

These love to eat broadhead skinks, for instance, which are pretty fast and hard to catch.

Called a coachwhip snake or whip snake because look at the tail.

Tail looks like a braided whip.

And there's some great myths associated with these.

So, the famous myth of the whip snake is that it would chase you down, and then it would whip you to death with its tail.

And then, to see if you were still alive, it would take the tip of its tail and stick it up into your nostrils to see if you're still breathing.

Obviously -- [ Laughs ] Obviously that's -- that's just a myth and not true.

Awesome snake -- One of my absolute favorites.

And usually quite snappy.

This one is not half-bad, especially the way I raced him down and grabbed him.

I'm gonna let this guy find some shade, but watch how fast they are.

Oh, here's a corn snake.

And I'm gonna catch him before he goes in a burrow.

And, boy, this is a pretty snake, but you know what?

Corn snakes in the Low Country are often even prettier than this.

This is perfect habitat for him, because it's early successional growth, lot of insects, lot of lizards and things like that.

And there's a lot of small mammals -- really, everything a corn snake needs.

They get the name corn snake because of this belly that looks a little bit like maize corn.

Of course, they show up in corn fields, too, but they're not after corn.

They're after mice and rats that, of course, feed on corn.

♪♪ Oh, here's something.

Boy, just about didn't catch this one.

But I know what it is.

I'm gonna be real careful to work it up.

It's a hognose snake.

In fact, it's not a typical hognose snake for the Low Country, because it's patterned.

And most of our hognose snakes are melanistic.

They're black when they reach adult size.

They all start patterned when they're babies.

But as they grow, they tend to get very, very dark.

This one has a beautiful pattern on it.

Now, hognose snakes often -- This one's not performing too much, but they have a tendency to spread their heads out like cobras.

Of course, that's supposed to scare me off and make me think they're bigger than they actually are.

Sometimes, they regurgitate toads.

And sometimes they play dead, which is very impressive.

But this one seems content to just kind of try and crawl away.

The other thing I notice -- Look at the eyes.

The eyes are opaque, they're cloudy, and that's because the snake is going through a shed.

Now, you can see the little pieces of skin kind of peeling off.

This one also has some injuries on it.

Looks like it's had a little bit of a rough time.

But after a shed, a lot of those rough places will be completely smooth, and it'll be really, really pretty and bright.

Neat snake.

♪♪ One of the best ways to catch snakes is to catch them as they're crossing the road.

So, we're gonna drive very slowly along this road and see if we can find out what's crossing.

♪♪ Road cruising is one of my favorite ways to find snakes because you never know what's gonna crawl across the road in front of you.

♪♪ I see something really, really neat right here.

Wow!

Right on the edge of the road right here coiled up is a real treat.

This is Southern hognose snake.

So, not the Eastern hognose snake, not the common one.

I'm gonna pick this guy up.

He's making a wonderful hissing noise.

[ Snake hisses ] Just a great noise.

And so, also spreading its head a little bit.

Now, again, not quite like the Easterns do.

They really spread that head out.

And these are a really different shape, much chunkier animals with real short heads.

But as I was saying, this is a snake that we still have in the Low Country in very isolated spots, like here.

They've got great habitat.

There's saw palmetto.

It's obviously very sandy.

It is extinct in at least two states in the United States.

Used to be in Alabama and Mississippi.

It is no longer there.

This is why we need to study snakes.

I mean, here's a species that hasn't been seen in 20-plus years in either of those two states.

But it's still here, and the real question is what kind of effect does that have on other animals.

And it's just terrible to think about losing a species, especially one as neat as this little Southern hognose snake.

But this is a good find.

This is a really, really unusual snake.

Let's make sure we continue to have these in South Carolina.

♪♪ When we road cruise for snakes, we talk about the golden hour.

It's a half-hour before dark and a half-hour after dark.

And that's when the most stuff moves.

♪♪ I think I see something right up here.

I know I saw something in here somewhere.

Okay.

Here he is.

This is a scarlet snake.

Now, this is a species that typically comes out a little bit later than this.

This is not a real pretty one.

Pick it up very carefully.

nonvenomous, obviously.

And scarlet snakes look a lot like scarlet kingsnakes and coral snakes.

But you notice the bands don't go all the way around the body, whereas both coral snakes and scarlet kings have bands that completely encircle the body.

Oh, man.

He just used the bathroom on me.

That's always a treat.

This is a reptile-egg specialist, so it's a snake that feeds on reptile eggs, skink eggs, and things like that.

It's got a kind of countersunk jaw, and it will grab an egg, and then it will kind of bite into the side of it and then pull some of the liquid out, and if the egg's small enough, it will swallow the entire egg or sometimes just remove the contents.

Very specialized snake.

This is as big as they get.

This is a full-grown snake.

In fact, the biggest scarlet snake I've ever seen in my life was well under two feet long.

Neat find.

♪♪ Okay, we came to an intersection, and here is a species that I really, really expected to see.

I mean, they are very, very common.

But I'm gonna need a stick for this one.

Oh, yeah.

A little guy, for sure, and I'm not gonna pick this one up, because this is a copperhead.

And copperheads are venomous snakes.

It's a pit viper, and this is probably a couple years old, maybe.

Beautiful snake.

Really, really pretty, and I'm gonna stay well out of range.

But notice -- great, big head, big, wedge-shaped head, 'cause it's a pit viper, and beautiful what look like hourglass patterns on it.

Now, this is one of the most common snakes in the Low Country.

It is venomous, but it is really, really common.

I mean, when you're out looking for snakes at night, this is one that you see very, very often.

Copperheads are true generalists.

They eat just about anything -- frogs, mice, lizards, even occasionally other snakes.

So, that's probably one of the reasons for their success is that they can eat a lot of different things.

They also can live in a variety of habitats.

Now, a lot of snakes are nocturnal this time of year because it's much cooler now, there are a lot more frogs and other small animals that become active.

Better keep an eye.

[ Chuckles ] Better keep an eye on the copperhead.

That's for sure.

Anyway, beautiful little snake, and, you know, looks like this one is just gonna continue on to where he's headed -- where he or she is headed.

And it's gonna leave me alone.

I mean, copperheads, like kingsnakes, like corn snakes, like ringneck snakes -- They all belong here, and they have a role to play in nature.

So, we'll just let this guy carry on about his business.

♪♪ [ Laughs ] Here is something.

Oh, now, this is a little bit bigger.

It's a pretty good-sized snake.

Yeah, this is what I thought it was from the -- from inside the car.

It's a kingsnake -- an adult, a really pretty one.

And like a lot of the ones in the Low Country, this has beautiful speckling between the bands.

Lot of Eastern kingsnakes in South Carolina just have the main bands.

They don't have that speckling.

Boy, pretty snake.

And these -- Kingsnakes eat other snakes.

They eat venomous snakes -- rattlesnakes, copperheads, things like that -- but they'll also eat garter snakes and corn snakes.

And they'll eat frogs and mice and lizards and really just about anything they run across.

It's kind of fun just watching this guy crawl on the road.

Notice this snake can't get a lot of traction on this.

I mean, this surface is fairly rough, but not nearly as easy to crawl on as grass or pine straw or something like that.

Let me pick this guy up.

Now, they do bite sometimes, but obviously nonvenomous.

And he may musk on me, and kingsnakes almost always produce a rather foul musk.

And that's -- that's a little [chuckles] unsettling, but other than that, they're wonderful snakes and I think one of the handsomest of all snake species.

As we've seen in this episode, we have a lot of different snakes in the Low Country.

They live in a variety of habitats, and they eat a lot of different things.

But each one of these snakes is an important member of our coastal kingdom.

Thanks for joining us.

♪♪