Copperhead

(Agkistrodon contortrix)

"Northern Copperhead"

Color Photograph: © Corel Corp.

"Broad-banded Copperhead"

Color Photographs: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)

Identification: Length 22 to 54 inches. A thick bodied snake with a ground coloration of red-brown, sometimes tinged with orange or pink and with darker, bold bands. The bands are either constricted in various ways or regular depending on location. Head without markings.

Geographical Variation:

Northern Copperhead (A. c. mokasen): Bands constricted with the widest portion along the sides and narrow at the top of the body; small dark spots between the bands (Massachusetts to southern Illinois south to northern Mississippi, northern Alabama and Georgia and parts of South Carolina).

Southern Copperhead (A. c. contortrix): Similar to the "Northern Copperhead", but with the bands so constricted and narrow at the top of the body that the two halves don't meet; body usually without dark spots between the bands (North Carolina south to Florida and westward in the extreme southern states to eastern Texas; also in the interior of the range to Oklahoma).

Broad-banded Copperhead (A. c. laticinctus): Bands regular, not constricted near the top (midline) of the body; bands usually wider than the lighter bands between them; no dark spots between the wider bands (Kansas and Oklahoma, southward into south-central Texas).

Osage Copperhead (A. c. phaeogaster): Similar to the "Northern Copperhead", but bands darker and without dark spots between them (northeastern Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, western Missouri, southern Iowa, and Nebraska).

Trans-Pecos Copperhead (A. c. pictigaster): Similar to the "Broad-banded Copperhead", but dark bands with a pale region at the base of each band (mountains of western Texas).

Range (see map on left): The Copperhead is found throughout much of the eastern United States from southern New England, southern Iowa and Illinois southward to extreme northern Florida in the east to Texas in the west.

Habitat: The Copperhead is found in a wide variety of habitats. In the east it is found on woody hillsides with rock outcropings. This snake also lives along streams, ponds, and swamps. In Texas, the western populations of the Copperhead are found in bamboo thickets and near rocky springs.

Food:  This species preys on small rodents, lizards, frogs, and insects.

Behavior: The Copperhead forages and basks during the daylight hours of the spring and fall, but becomes nocturnal during the hotter summer days. This species is poisonous, but is not nearly as dangerous as the rattlesnakes or the Cottonmouth. The bite is painful, but rarely fatal.

Reproduction:  The young are borne live. The adults mate in both the fall and the spring. The number of offspring per female ranges between 1 and 15.

Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)

The red-brown coloration of the body, the pits on the side of the head, and the absence of rattles easily identify this species.

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