Squamata suborder Serpentes
Agkistrodon contortrix -- Copperhead
All information found on this site falls under the INHS's Internet License Agreement.
Purple shade indicates vouchered specimens. Light blue (cyan)
shade indicates photographic records. Yellow shade indicates verified
sighting.
Slanted hatch indicates pre-1980 records only.
NOTE: Not all specimens upon which these maps are based have been verified.
Key Characters: Nine large symmetrical plates on top of head; elliptical pupil; pit between eye and nostril; back with hourglass-shaped crossbands; back scales strongly keeled; anal plate not divided.
Similar Species: Cottonmouth, fox snake, northern water snake.
Subspecies: Northern copperhead, A. c. mokasen; and intergradation between northern and southern copperhead, A. c. contortrix.
Description: Large (up to 135 cm TL), stout-bodied venomous snake. Back yellowish brown or rusty brown with 10-20 reddish brown hourglass-shaped, dark-margined crossbands that are narrow across the back and wider on the sides. Belly yellow to brown with brown blotches near the edges. Top of head red-brown. Thin dark line extends from eye to angle of jaw. The sulfur yellow tail tip of newborn darkens with maturity.
Habitat: Wooded, rocky hillsides and forest edges, sometimes in meadows and fields during summer.
Natural History: This shy snake is active April through October. Often seen around old, abandoned buildings where it feeds on rodents. Mates in April and May or September and October. Three to 10 young, 20-25 cm TL, are born in late August or early September. Predators include other snakes, birds of prey, and medium-sized mammals.
Status: Although probably reduced by habitat destruction and wanton killing by people, it remains locally abundant in the Shawnee Hills and the bluffs along the southern Mississippi River (see distribution map, above).