Interesting Night Last Night

[kenboyles72]

Last night about 1 AM, my dog started barking, thought she was barking at the deer, as usual. But noticed her bark was a little different, so I went to the door and knocked for her to come. When she got to the porch, she turned and started looking at the ground, ran back down the stairs and stood about the place she was looking before. So I grabbed the flashlight, my pistol and went to check it. What I found was a king snake eating a copperhead. All my years I have never seen this in action, so I woke the kids and the wife to come watch. Almost at the the end, the copperhead's tail wrapped around a small branch and knotted up, so mr.king snake couldn't get him all the way down. So I helped him out by untangling the branch and allowed him to finish dinner. After he was done, I picked the king snake up and relocated him about 100yrds from the house in the pasture, that way my dog wouldn't kill it. Thought that was pretty cool to watch.

 

[robertc1024]

Very cool.

 

[AustinN4]

Good job, king snake!

 

[Davetex]

Great catch, and you had a decent camera!!!!

 

[oldag]

King snakes I am fine with.

Copperheads, not so much.

 

[MetalCutter]

Good snake vs bad snake.....good snake wins. All is good in the world today!

 

[FireInTheWire]

That's awesome! Guess that's why they are called King snake?

 

[IXLR8]

Great story!

 

[vmax]

One less copper head ..good and neat to watch

 

[skfullgun]

Awesome!

 

[SQLGeek]

Now that is cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Moonpie]

What round for copperheaded rattle moccassins?

 

[Wildcat Diva]

That was really neat!

 

[rman]

Speckled king snake eating what looks like a rat snake? 100% sure it's not a copperhead.

ETA:
Speckled King Snake eating a Western Rat Snake. both non-venomous

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[rman]

Speckled king snakes are known to eat venomous snakes though. great to have around

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[Lunyfringe]

Speckled king snake eating what looks like a rat snake? 100% sure it's not a copperhead.

ETA:
Speckled King Snake eating a Western Rat Snake. both non-venomous

One look at that picture and the first thing I noticed... copper colored rat snake, pattern is all wrong for a copperhead.

Here is an Eastern King Snake killing a copperhead

 

[rman]

rat snakes, and a few others, have 6-sided "saddle" patterns. Some rattlesnakes can have similar patterns as well, but with other distinguishing features.

copperheads will have a "Hershey kiss" pattern, and eastern copperheads are very similar but the tips of the "kisses" connect along their back. They can vary in color quite a bit, I have seen some almost gray.

One look at that picture and the first thing I noticed... copper colored rat snake, pattern is all wrong for a copperhead.

Here is an Eastern King Snake killing a copperhead

View attachment 148621

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[lonestardiver]

Any king snake around is a good snake. Granted they will eat non-venomous snakes as well, but they also eat rats and mice. But the big thing to me besides that rats and mice is that will Kill and eat the venomous snakes too.

 

[Lunyfringe]

rat snakes, and a few others, have 6-sided "saddle" patterns. Some rattlesnakes can have similar patterns as well, but with other distinguishing features.

copperheads will have a "Hershey kiss" pattern, and eastern copperheads are very similar but the tips of the "kisses" connect along their back. They can vary in color quite a bit, I have seen some almost gray.

I've seen a lot of variation in Rat snake coloring, too... just had one here a couple weeks ago that was copper colored, but definately not a copperhead. Rat snake pattern is sometimes called "chain-link"... vs the Hershey kisses on copperheads. (With or without dots)

 

[lonestardiver]

Copperheads have various patterns as well as colors. Some regional variations are almost dark like a cottonmouth. Some cottonmouths are lighter and can look like a copperhead.

Copperheads and cottonmouths are the same genus but different species so they are related. They can interbreed as well which may result in some of the color variations.

If you look closely at a cottonmouth’s body, you may very well see a similar pattern as a copperhead but just not as obvious as many cottonmouths are not truly “black” but have varying shades of dark color...