♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hello, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Snakes are one of the most common animal forms found in South Carolina.

Some 49 varieties make their home in our state, but snakes are also very misunderstood.

People fear them.

They have a lot of misconceptions.

Today we'll try to right the record.

Our guide and teacher is Rudy Mancke, Natural History Curator for the South Carolina Museum Commission.

I'm really talking about something I've been interested in for a long time!

One thing we want to do today is look at a variety of snakes that are found throughout the state, so up front we want to tell you we've brought snakes into this situation thanks to the Columbia Museum of Art and Science.

What we want to do is put these snakes in habitats that you would expect to find them in and comment about each snake.

Almost all are found statewide, so viewers all over will say, "I think I have seen those."

But the more you know, the less afraid you are.

Today's a day to tell the truth about a very misunderstood animal.

Why do you think there are so many fears?

There aren't many poisonous snakes around.

No, not many.

I was told stories that simply weren't true.

How those stories started would be hard to understand.

The more you learn, though, the less you accept stories like that for face value, and you look behind the scenes.

I guess it's been passed down through generations, because we have a lot of snakes that people come in contact with.

It was startling for settlers in this area who had never seen a rattlesnake to come across one of the big rattlesnakes that we find in South Carolina.

Poisonous snakes were much more common here than in Europe, so that may have begun the problem.

We are in a field today, an ordinary farm field.

Is this a likely place?

Plowed fields are especially nice for two or three varieties.

If you look over in this field, you will see a very common snake in our state known as the eastern hognose snake.

Let's take a close look.

All righty.

Beryl, look at this thing.

He's moving away a little bit.

We're going to have to slow him down.

Isn't he called something else?

This is called a spreading adder because when you see the snake in the wild-- if you don't have one that just came out of a cage-- he'll flatten his neck like a cobra and hiss loudly.

So they are called spreading adders, or sand adders, because you often find them in sandy fields.

Sometimes they are solid black, but this is the more typical coloration.

They are found throughout the state.

Now this is not poisonous?

This is one of the nonpoisonous varieties often killed for a poisonous snake because of the bluff, the flattening of his neck and hissing loudly.

Most snakes that flatten their bodies and make noises are nonpoisonous snakes that are bluffing.

The poisonous ones generally are a lot quieter and generally don't do as much bluffing.

The tongue, which keeps flickering out, many people are very bothered by.

Yeah, that makes me nervous!

It's not a stinging device.

It's used to smell and taste.

It picks odor particles out of the air and brings them inside the mouth.

There are a couple of openings in the roof of the mouth, and one side of the fork fits in each of those.

Does he have a rough feel?

Pretty rough... these scales have ridges.

Go ahead and touch him.

I'm not too brave about this!

This is one of the reptiles, animals with dry skins and scales.

But he's got a soft belly.

Yeah, fairly soft.

The name hognose snake comes from the fact that, if you look at his head, you'll see that upturned snout like the nose of a hog.

This uses it the same way a hog does, to root around in the ground, especially soft earth, where he hopes to find his favorite food, toads.

That's what he feeds on.

How does he do that?

He doesn't poison them and can't squeeze them.

All snakes have very sharp teeth, razor-sharp, that are curved back like a fishhook.

They have six rows of these teeth in that mouth.

This animal simply grabs the toad and swallows him while the toad is alive.

He doesn't kill the animal.

Once he gets to the stomach, the bones, insides, and body of the toad are digested.

Why wouldn't he try to bite you?

Why is he allowing you to do these things?

This one simply allows you to handle him, even in the wild, because it's not part of his behavior to bite.

There are other snakes that, when you come upon them, will defend themselves.

This snake generally tries to bluff his way out of it.

If the first bluff doesn't work-- if spreading his neck and hissing doesn't scare you-- if you poke him or try to pick him up, he'll roll over, stick his tongue out, writhe around, and play dead.

He gives himself away, though... flip him on his stomach, and he rolls back on his back.

You could do that for 15 or 20 minutes... this snake doesn't feel you look dead unless you're on your back!

Will we find this one all over the state?

It's found all over the state and generally open areas like this.

One place that you find snakes commonly is on edges of fields and woods, very much like we're finding here today.

Dirt roads are good places because a dirt road on each side will have wooded areas for the snakes to hide.

This snake is quite an eater of toads and easy to handle in a hand.

We'd better let him go find his food supply!

We can leave him here and see what else we can find, but people should realize what it is because if anybody wants to keep a snake for any short period, and we don't keep these long, this is the easiest because it does not bite and feeds on animals commonly found in the state, especially in the spring and summer.

Okay...let's put him back.

Just let him ease away, and let's get back on the road.

Isn't that a beautiful animal?

I really like to watch them move now that I've gotten over the fear.

I think what bothers people is that these animals are so different from us.

He is moving without arms or legs, and he can move pretty rapidly.

He doesn't have eyelids like we do, so he never blinks, and that bothers some people.

The tongue sticking out is weird, but very well-made to do what he does.

Let's slip away now, leave him to himself, see what else we can find down the road.

[no dialogue] (Beryl) Rudy, you suggested that we probably look along the edges?

Yeah, a dirt road this time of day with a field on one side and forest on the other gives us some good opportunities.

Snakes like these edges, and you notice a lot of trash piled out here.

A lot of snakes will come to this kind of material, especially when we've got cold nights, just because this holds warmth a bit longer, and they can get down underneath it.

Many times when you look at stuff like this... Just a plain, old tin can?

Yeah...see if we can find this fellow because I think I saw some movement in here.

This type of snake is fairly common in the state.

He's a little jumpy because we just got him.

You can see the reddish orange blotches on the back bordered by black.

If you look on the belly... Now wait, Rudy...you picked this thing up with all the color.

I've always thought something that brilliant could have been poisonous!

I think one thing we ought to tell everybody is that if you don't know what kind it is, treat it like it's poisonous.

Out here, that means leave it alone.

That doesn't mean kill it because many people are bitten because they are trying to kill them.

Snakes will defend themselves, but even poisonous varieties give us plenty of space, because any animal too big to eat is a threat, and they would rather not come in contact with it.

Reddish and black markings... that's not a sign of a poisonous snake?

Not necessarily, especially when just blotches.

These aren't bands that go all the way across.

They are just a series of blotches, and the belly, as we were noticing, is a checkerboard pattern, sort of black and white.

This is known as the red rat snake because of the reddish markings, or more commonly, the corn snake.

It's found often in cornfields, and it's feeding on the rats and mice, especially small mice that come to a cornfield to feed on corn.

How does this get its food?

This is a constrictor.

Unlike the hognose, which grabs its food and hangs on, this one grabs the animal with its teeth and then wraps around it and puts on the squeeze.

It doesn't crush it to a pulp.

It just cuts off breathing.

Once the animal is unconscious, the snake swallows it.

He's wrapping around your hand.

Is he trying to constrict there?

He feels more at home, feels like he's in control when he can get himself positioned around something.

On the top of the head, you can actually see a spear-point marking.

That is beautiful!

Again, the tongue coming out.

The tongue still makes me nervous!

It's a little bothersome, but it just tickles.

This thing is interesting because, like all of the rat snakes, they can climb straight up the side of a tree, especially a tree with grooves on the bark.

Now look at that...he's doing all the holding himself!

How is he hanging on?

He pushes the scales on the belly, wedges them in grooves on this bark by pushing the ribs out in that manner, and that wedges him in place.

That can go up the side without any problem... without arms or legs, doing that kind of thing!

All rat snakes can do this.

We've got the black rat snake, or pilot black snake, in the upper part of the state, and a yellowish green rat snake on the lower part.

There are quite a few varieties.

They do feed on rodents, especially rats, mice, chipmunks, squirrels.

This one won't get big enough to eat a squirrel, but some of them will.

This one gets about 5 feet, maximum length.

This is an average-sized corn snake.

Really do pretty well as pets.

They eat well and tame very nicely.

Whenever you see a snake going straight up or down a tree, it's a rat snake.

This is the only snake we've got that has the power and scales like this to actually force himself up or down the side of a tree.

Again, a nonpoisonous snake.

Let's leave this one hanging there and see if we can find something else.

Isn't that beautiful, though...wow!

Where do you think we should concentrate?

On the sides of the trail.

It gets cooler down here.

Let's see what we can find.

♪ There's a snake that's easy to identify even from a distance.

He's right in the open sunlight.

We didn't have to look hard!

No, he's not moving too fast.

Maybe we can talk while he's on the ground.

This is common statewide like the other two.

It's known as the common kingsnake, or eastern kingsnake.

I've heard that the kingsnake is a friend.

Yeah...most people are aware of that.

Many folks would really hit you if you killed their kingsnake that lives near their house because this snake has been known to feed on other snakes, including poisonous varieties.

This snake is a constrictor like the corn snake we saw.

Pound for pound, probably this is one of the most powerful constrictors in the world.

It is immune to the venom of the pit vipers-- the copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes-- so it can feed on those as easily as on anything else.

It also eats rats, mice, small birds, lizards, and whatever happens to come along.

I've always wondered how snakes reproduce.

Some lay eggs, others have live young, and I don't know what makes the difference.

This snake and the first two, the rat snake and the hognose snake, are egg layers.

This one last year laid 13 eggs, so this is obviously a female of the species.

There are other snakes, though, that, in a sense, keep the eggs inside the body.

Once the little snakelet uses up all of the yolk, it gives birth to the snakes alive.

All of our poisonous snakes, except the coral snake, are live-bearers.

Live-bearers just keep the eggs inside the body rather than having a placenta form like is true in humans.

How do you tell males from females?

Looking at the base of the tail is easiest.

The male has a pair of reproductive organs in the base of the tail.

That will cause the base to be much wider than it is in the male because those paired penises are absent in the female.

These things are paired in the back where legs are supposed to be.

My grandmother told me of throwing a snake in the fire and watching its legs come out.

She was really meaning that she threw a snake in that was male, and during that excruciating pain, the male reproductive organs were forced out.

Many people have heard that story and think snakes really have legs.

Some of the more primitive ones, pythons and boas, have remnants of legs, but this snake has lost all remnants of appendages.

Powerful animal... very powerful!

And very pretty.

Another name is chain snake because of that chainlike pattern on the back.

Is it always that color?

Sometimes the markings are a little more yellow, but black, shiny scales.

These scales are very smooth...gives it a glossy look.

Again, the tongue is flickering out.

Snakes don't see very well.

They see movement very well, but can only see about 15 feet.

They don't hear either, do they?

No, they pick up vibrations through the ground.

They are very sensitive to vibrations... not through the air, through whatever they are lying on.

That's why the tongue is used so much.

Smelling is very important to these animals.

We'll let this slide on across the road.

Let's see if we can find something else.

He is really moving too!

Isn't that beautiful... eastern kingsnake.

[no dialogue] If the trail goes by a creek area, you'll see a snake like this often hanging on branches over the water.

Let me ease this off and hold it in the sunlight.

This one has bands on the front of the body that break into blotches about a quarter of the way down.

He's got a very big head he can flatten into a triangle shape.

The belly's pretty in color.

The eyes bug out on the head, though.

They stick out quite a bit.

This is one of the great number of nonpoisonous snakes that live in the water.

It's commonly called a water snake.

Most people call these water moccasins and would be afraid of them.

One variety that lives in the water is poisonous.

I'd rather refer to that as the cottonmouth.

It does show you the lining of his mouth often when you come close.

This snake would never act that way.

The cottonmouth also vibrates his tail when he gets nervous or angry.

This one, the tail hasn't been vibrating at all.

This snake has a round pupil on the eye, no pit, which is found on the poisonous cottonmouth.

We'll take a closer look at a pit.

Nonpoisonous water snakes are killed often for poisonous snakes because they are big and sort of mean-looking.

Are their markings anything alike?

Somewhat... they have bands.

The bands at the front you can see pretty distinctively, but if you look carefully, the bands are widest in the middle, not on the sides.

In the cottonmouth, they are wide on the sides and more narrow in the middle.

Could we look at the tail section?

You told me poisonous snakes had the scale linings differently than....

This will be a harder snake to see that on.

The next snake we'll look at, we can show that very nicely.

Although this one has quieted down, these water snakes are very tough animals to deal with.

They do quieten down in captivity, as this has done.

Again, if you see a snake and don't know what kind it is, you simply ought to leave it alone.

Snakes are not like people... they don't kill just for fun.

I'm afraid that's something that mostly humans do.

Snakes do not act that way, thank goodness.

That's a neat animal!

Let me ease him down, and we'll walk on.

This might be a good time to look at a snake that might be found under a log.

We haven't looked underneath things.

Let me see if I can leave this on a limb.

Maybe he won't stay.

No, he's going to slide off.

Let's put him back down on the ground.

Maybe he can get back to the water, and we'll see what's farther on.

[no dialogue] Another good place to look is under logs that aren't too heavy.

Pine like this would be nice.

It's safest to roll the log towards you so if there's anything there you'll have something between you and it.

There's something moving down there!

Let me get it before it burrows away!

Boy, it's moving pretty fast!

It's fast!

(Rudy) Let's see if I can get the dirt off.

(Beryl) He's beautiful!

Look at the colors.

He looks like a toy!

He doesn't get a great deal larger... two or three times this long and about twice as big around.

This is found statewide and is a burrowing animal.

People see it plowing up their garden and think it's poisonous.

This does look like the coral snake, which we'll look at.

This is the scarlet snake, named after the predominant scarlet-red color you see when you pull him out.

Red on yellow can kill a fellow... red on black is good for Jack.

If the red bands touch the yellow bands, it's poisonous, but if red touches black, as it does here, it's a nonpoisonous snake.

This is a burrower, very smooth scales, and look at that rounded nose-- pointed nose, small eyes.

That allows him to burrow rapidly into the ground.

This snake we'll just leave here now and walk toward the field and look at another variety that looks very much like this but is poisonous.

This one is a nonpoisonous variety.

[no dialogue] (Rudy) In a field like this with squishy soil, you often run across-- well, not often, but every now and then-- one of the poisonous varieties.

We've been seeing nonpoisonous ones.

We're in a different ballpark because this variety is extremely poisonous.

The venom of this snake is, drop for drop, more deadly than any of our poisonous snakes.

It's very closely related to the cobras.

This is the eastern coral snake.

(Beryl) Such a beautiful snake!

A beautiful animal...very smooth scales, small eyes, good modifications for burrowing.

But look at the arrangement of the bands.

Red on yellow can kill a fellow.

Red here-- big red markings-- bordered by yellow can kill a fellow.

Notice that the nose is solid black rather than being reddish that we had seen before.

He's very jerky.

Yeah, real jerky movement.

It doesn't strike like most poisonous snakes.

It just nonchalantly begins to chew on you.

The fangs are very short... the venom is deadly, but it does take a while to inject enough to cause trouble.

It is responsible for no deaths since we've been keeping records.

One person a year in South Carolina dies of poisonous snakebite, and usually the snake is one of the large rattlesnakes.

This snake is a burrower and is not commonly seen above ground.

That is why you generally don't have nearly the problem with it that you would have with some of the larger snakes.

The eastern coral snake.

Let's move on and look at a more common poisonous snake, the copperhead, one that's found all over the state.

Okay.

Where would we find this snake?

This snake is found statewide.

It's the most common of our poisonous snakes, responsible for most poisonous snakebites in the state, but it kills less than 1% of people it bites.

It's usually in moist areas.

It can get into drier areas.

Here it's under wild plum bushes, coming to feed on animals attracted to that.

I remember being told to stay away from plum trees and blackberry patches.

You can pick plums and blackberries, but be careful about what's on the ground.

You see how this would blend in.

A coppery head gives it the name copperhead.

Another name for this animal-- there's so many common names for them-- is the pilot snake or the highland moccasin.

Notice that with an L-stick, it sits on it very well.

Look at the large pit between the eye and nostril.

You can see why this, close relative...the cottonmouth, and the rattlesnakes are referred to as pit vipers.

That's one way you tell, poisonous snake.

Exactly, and the pit is pretty large.

We're a good distance away, yet the pit is distinctive.

The tongue, again, is very important.

The cat-eye pupil, elliptical pupil, is typical of pit vipers also.

Not like the round eyes of nonpoisonous.

Right, the ones we've seen earlier.

The head is very broad and chunky in shape.

It's distinctively that way, not just when you are bothering him, but it's that way as long as the animal is there.

Here he comes back around.

Dumbbell-shaped markings are very distinctive, a good bit like the eastern cottonmouth, a very close relative.

It's very sensitive to temperature changes... 1/1000 of a degree change in temperature, this animal will pick it up, either hot or cold, and that's what's so useful.

This snake hunts at night in warmer weather.

The pit allows it to see an animal, tell how far away and what size it is, without using its eyes.

It's very sensitive to temperature changes.

The tongue, again, used to pick up odors in the air.

You see he uses that quite a bit.

He uses it to inject venom.

Well, not the tongue... the fangs are what is involved as far as poison.

The fangs are modified teeth.

There are a pair of them that fold up on this snake.

Sometimes they don't even use those fangs when they bite.

Many times poisonous snakes will bite without the fangs being used.

You can also tell by the scales on the underbelly, can't you?

Under the tail on a poisonous snake-- these pit vipers anyway-- there's a single row of scales.

Nonpoisonous varieties would have a double row of scales.

If the snake has been killed and you wonder whether it was poisonous, that's a good way to tell.

He's getting a little nervous in the warm sunlight.

A pretty good-sized snake.

Maximum size for copperheads... 4 feet, 5 inches.

We have seen a variety of snakes today, but not nearly enough to talk about the snakes in South Carolina.

There is a brochure available from the South Carolina Museum Commission.

It's called "Common Snakes of South Carolina," and it identifies them as such.

It's available for just 50 cents.

If you write to the South Carolina Museum Commission, they'll be glad to send you one.

I don't guess there's anything else, except if you don't know, leave it alone, not to just kill snakes because they're snakes.

No...they fit in fairly well in the environment, sometimes embarrassingly better than humans do.

A good point to end on!

Thank you for joining us and join us again for another NatureScene.

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