Northern Water Snake

(Nerodia sipedon)

"Northern Water Snake"

Color Photograph: Ohio Department of Natural Resources

"Northern Water Snake"

Color Photograph: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

"Lake Erie Water Snake"

Color Photograph: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon)

Identification: Snake 22 to 52 inches in length. Variable in color; red-brown, black-brown, or gray. Neck with dark bands. Back and sides with alternating light and dark blotches or bands. Older individuals tend to be darker than young ones. Belly white, yellow, or gray with black or red-brown, lunule-shaped spots. Eye without a dark band stretching to the corner of the mouth. Scales keeled and anal plate divided.

Geographical Variation:

Northern Water Snake (N. s. sipedon): Dark body blotches near the back wider than the lighter band spaces between them. Range: Southern Maine, southern Onatioro and Quebec, southward to North Carolina in the east, westward to Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado. Reaches southward to Tennessee, Illinois, and Indiana.

Midland Water Snake (N. s. pleuralis): Dark body blotches near the back narrower than the light spaces between them. Range: The southern populations from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and eastern Louisiana, westward to southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and eastern Oklahoma.

Lake Erie Water Snake (N. s. insularis): Dark markings on the back weak to absent. Range: Endemic to the Put-in-Bay Islands in Lake Erie.

Carolina Water Snake L. s. williamengelsi): Dark with black markings on the belly. Range: Endemic to the Outer Bank Islands and adjacent coastline of North Carolina.

Range (see map below left): The Northern Water Snake is found throughout most of the eastern United States, except for northern Maine, southern Atlantic Coast, and Florida. This species also extends into extreme southern Ontario and Quebec. The western range extends into eastern Colorado and throughout most of the central Great Plains.

Habitat: The Northern Water Snake occurs in a wide variety of aquatic habitats including lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, marshes, and swamps.

Food: Small fish, frogs, crayfish, and small mammals.

Behavior: This species is diurnal and is commonly encountered swimming in the water or basking on rocks or tree stumps along the shoreline. The species is very aggressive and can inflict a very painful bite (not poisonous). If cornered the snake will strike repeatedly.

Reproduction:  The Northern Water Snake bears its young alive. The snakes mate in the spring and bear their young in later summer to fall.

Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon)

Similar Species:

Diamondback Water Snake (Nerodia rhombifera)

Brown Water Snake (Nerodia taxispilota)

Similar Species