Outdoors Maryland; 1607

Outdoors Maryland is made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you. Coming up you Brit walking the Maryland about carefully in search of the elusive and sometimes fearsome slithering species among us outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources DENR inspired by nature. It's mystery rules the long spine

of their natural history. We know from fossils they date from the time of dinosaurs surviving the dinosaurs demise. It's snakes that captured our mythic imaginations through the ages and across culture it's reviled all Revier it's they have never been ignored. It's snakes are remarkably diverse creatures. An estimated twenty seven hundred species are known. It's they live on all continents except Antarctica and even now new species are being discovered in remote rain forests. Snakes are specialized reptiles closely related to lizards snakes however have no eyelids no external ear openings so they hear vibrations only and advanced sensing capabilities with those famous forked tongues. Maryland snakes and coil their own mysteries. It's uncertain exactly how many species now live in Maryland. Somewhere between 24 and 27.

Some are rare or endangered all native snakes in Maryland are protected from killing and unregulated collection by law. We are guided in our search for snakes by three biologists. Top experts for the mid-Atlantic region viewers beware. They are also diehard snake lovers. Everyone Ed Thompson is the recognized authority on reptiles and amphibians of mountainous western Maryland. This is Scott Smith is the expert for the East Piedmont to the north and the coastal plain including the eastern and western shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Marty Martin is a snake wrangler legend one of the world's foremost authorities on pit vipers like timber rattlesnakes and copperheads. Ed Thompson and Scott Smith work for the wildlife and heritage division the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Many people fear all snakes but only two species in Maryland are poisonous or benefits.

These are timber rattlesnakes found primarily in the mountains and Northern copperheads found state wide. Marty Martin has always been fascinated by rattlesnakes. All of my life I've been interested in the magnificent creatures such as rattlesnake grizzly bears and big cats. Yeah yeah I think the fascination with venomous snakes probably has something to do with their ability to hurt us. We respect and admire. It is illegal to collect or kill timber rattlesnakes in Maryland believed to have occurred statewide once. Timber rattlesnakes are now one of our few remaining wilderness species. Generally only found in remote forested areas in the mountains. Timber rattlesnakes live in colonies of dozens of snakes rattlesnakes hibernate during winter in groups or singly in Rocky crevices deep below the frost line. When spring temperatures warm they sluggishly emerge to bask in the sun. They have not eaten for months.

And as cold blooded reptiles they desperately need to raise their body temperatures to hunt for food. I mean here here's one over here right in front of me. OK there's a dark one in there. Dark when I'm away. This is an average sized adult male timber rattle snake around three and a half feet long probably weighs two pounds. It's fun the snake is scared or mad and vibrates its tail then acts as a warning to a potential predator it's your nuts. Surely in a sense it really doesn't want to bite anybody. But if I were to step on it it would bite me. Timber rattlesnakes are highly variable in color like phase and dark phase colorations occur in the same colonies.

The Timber Rattlesnake has the telltale elliptical or kadai of a venomous snake. By contrast the eyes of all non-venomous snakes in Maryland are around rattlesnakes are picked by bears. The pit between the eye and nostril is used for locating warm blooded prey like mice or chipmunks. They can sense temperature changes of one one hundredth of a degree Fahrenheit. Here's one of last year's babies. Finding juveniles is a good sign and of course in the case that there's been successful reproduction recently now don't make the mistake and think that baby rattlesnakes baby copperheads are not venomous they are. They're highly than a mouse and they bite a marriage that doesn't run very far before it falls over dead so you don't want to pick one up and play with it. They can hurt you rattlesnake spend the summer in the forest foraging for food and then in fall return to overwinter denting sites before hibernating pregnant females give

birth timber rattlesnakes have a low reproductive rate. Females don't give birth until age 8 and then only every two to four years two or three babies out of a typical litter of eight will survive to reproduce. The removal of just a few adult females from a population can be devastating. If you see a rattlesnake. The best thing to do. Just leave it alone. Step around it. If one is bitten by a rattlesnake most authorities on snake bite recommand that you get to the hospital as soon as possible. Good advice for the state's other venomous snake. The Northern Copperhead some consider copperheads more dangerous than rattlesnakes. They lack a warning rattle and their support camouflage makes it easier to stumble upon them accidentally. The copperheads range is state wide although they are more commonly found in the mountains

Copperheads have distinctive identifying features you'll see against a lighter background. The dark brown hourglass shaped pattern down the spine and sides narrow on the top broader on the bottom the Copperheads head is clear of pattern a yellowish coppery color and the cat like slit Iris unmistakably signals. This snake is venomous. There yes. There you go. You were there with an average sized male about 30 inches I'd say. They feed on mice shrews occasionally frogs and sex lizards snakes hunt prey three ways copperheads and rattlesnakes ambush their prey. They invent a mate the rodent that runs off dies probably within five minutes they

pick up the scent follow it and they swallow it. Other snakes like the Black Racer capture their prey immobilize it and then eat it alive constrictors like this corn snake rapidly and coiled their prey squeezing until the rodent dies of his fixation. All snakes can eat proportionately large prey by swallowing it whole. A meal will satisfy for one to three weeks. Many of the region's other pattern snakes are often mistaken for Copperheads. Scott Smith is a common misconception. Any snake that has a pattern on its body. People think is a venomous snake and they kill it or get all upset. Ninety nine point nine percent of the time it's one of our common non-venomous snakes such as this common Garter Snake here. Distinguishing characteristics include a red tongue black stripes under the eye and a central yellowish stripe garter snakes have an extremely varied diet. Everything from

insects like grasshoppers to small mice to even other small snakes. The common Northern Water Snake is often mistaken for either a copperhead or the venomous water moccasin. Ed Thompson looks for water snakes along the Potomac River in western Maryland. This is a big northern water snake. I got a handle and generally they love to bite you. However they're harmless but they have a lust for life. You can see the pattern as he's flattened out. They do that to make themselves appear bigger and more fearsome but it's real important to notice that the band's wider on the pop and narrower on the bottom the copperhead is just the opposite. It's wider at the base and narrower on the back a lot of people call these water moccasins even are this far north. There is a tale that there are water moccasins in Maryland but there is not this snake may startle you when you're near the water's edge but if you just let them be they'll let you

be in. This is Eastern milk snake and it's one of the more common snakes in Maryland. Found mainly from the coastal plain all the way to the mountains. Favorite habitat is in old fields that are rock piles were farmers cleared the rocks out their fields. But this is a snake that's often confused for a copperhead. And one of the main ways you tell a difference is the milk snake has what we call saddles or blotches across the back a copperhead has bands that are narrow at the top and get wide on the side. The milk snake's head is very tiny compared to a copperhead and it has a bold pattern on the Copperheads head is plain colored. It gets the name milk snake. It's an old folklore tale. These snakes were often seen by the settlers hanging around their barns. And they were after mice but they just assumed it was in the barn trying to feed off the cows.

Calvert County on the western shore is noted for its diversity of habitats and therefore reptiles and amphibians. Scott Smith knows it's a great place to find snakes. This is a coastal plain milks the coastal plain milk snake is related to the eastern milk snake just seen but is an integrative it and the mysterious garlic king snake a coastal plain species it's rarely found except encountered in St. Marys counties. The range extends to Florida. It's a fairly rare species. Their coloration is highly variable. A lot of people mistake this species for a venomous species the coral snake. You need to remember that coral snakes don't occur in Maryland. A quick easy way to tell the difference is a coral snake yellow in the red are going to be touching. It's a red and yellow dangerous fellow. Is that the little rhyme to remember this snake like a lot of our other snakes is what we call fuss Auriol that means it spends a lot of its time underground kind of like fossil in the ground. Today we found this particular snake underneath this old

metal ash can. Generally they're going to be hunting and feeding at night primarily on lizards. This particular snake looks like it's been around for quite a while. The top of its head has an old injury on it that is healed and then I'm almost wanted if maybe an owl or something didn't grab this and and it got away. Related to Maryland's milk snakes are two species of king snakes. The Mole king snake so-called because it spends most of its time underground is primarily found in the western shore counties. The range extends to northern Florida. This is one of those snakes that because they're so secretive we don't really have a good handle on their status in Maryland. Currently they're not a listed species. People have killed these taken they're copperheads and of course this is not a copperhead doesn't really even look much like one except except that it has a pattern on its back. It's an active burrow or you wonder how does the same burrow not damage that size snakes don't have eyelids their eyes are open all the time their eyes are

protected by this same skin that's protecting their scales here is covering over their eyes. It's as if you had a pair of glasses on all the time. Our other king snake is the Eastern king snake which is a subspecies of the common king snake comic ink snakes one of the largest ranges of any snake in the world. Our Eastern king snake is found in Maryland the coastal plain and in the Piedmont it's very recognizable. The only snake in Maryland that looks like this. The Eastern king snake is also known as the chain king snake because it a White is almost in a chain like pattern king snakes are really interesting because they're they feed on other snakes and they they will even feed on rattlesnakes and copperheads. They're immune to the venom. A large Eastern king snake will feed on a smaller Eastern king snake. So as you can imagine family gatherings don't happen too hot. So this is one of the snakes that helps control other snake populations. They're called the king because the king over other snakes. Andy Brown is a senior naturalist with the Calvert County Natural Resources Division.

He has a captive rare corn snake. There are seldom found wild in Maryland anymore. This is a corn snake. One of my favorite species a snake found locally they belong to the rat snake family the a laugh a. As you can see they're brightly colored orange saddles are different than a copperhead in that they are almost circular or rectangular shaped whereas a copperhead would be more hourglass. They're found mostly around you know edge type habitats where the forest meets old fields. They eat a lot of small mammals and even some large mammals and lots of nestlings of birds. Some native snakes are less colorful than pattern but no less remarkable in behavior. The eastern hog no snake for example puts on a virtuoso show of defense when threatened. Oh isn't that cool. Look at that. This is all bluff. You see why it's called the puff adder.

Doug never bites but it acts like it does and that scares most people away. But we read him a book to him and I went to the bathroom mommy. Now here comes the next phase is this act dead act like it's dying. And now it's planned. He still wants to turn over and stay on his own is back. The hog no snake is is fairly common in certain parts of the state. It's been found from the ridge and valley all the way to the coastal plain. It's usually a beautifully Mark snake. The orange in there is quite common and they vary considerably. They can tell they call hawg no snakes because they have this horny upturned

snout and they use that to burrow into loose soil and sand to hide and a search for toads. So this snake is still trying to pretend it's dead. A lot of times the final display is to open the mouth and let the tongue hang out. And I've even seen them exude a little blood out of their mouth already. Two magnificent species of black snakes are found in Maryland. The common and state wide they are striking in every sense of the word. The black rat snake is our largest Native snake the Black Racer the fastest. Both are variably patterned when youn non-venomous. They will defend themselves if threatened. This is a near the maximum size range for a black rat snake If it's certainly at least a six foot snake. Black rat snakes are constrictor so they wrap themselves around their prey and squeeze it this guy has a lot of old wounds and injuries on him and he probably got those from stuff he was trying to kill. Black rat snake spent a lot of time up in trees a like

feeding on mice and birds and young nestlings and bird eggs. This animal could take a medium sized rabbit probably even snakes. Really amazing mussels and ribs that allow them to move fairly rapidly over ground in this case climb up a vertical surface of a tree. Black rat snakes are the most common snake that people are going to see in Maryland in your in your neighborhoods in your yards. People get upset when they see a snake like this around their house. In fact they're as efficient or more efficient than a house cat. Keep in mice population is down around your structures because they can get into places your cats can't. It's getting ready to move and let you know you want to grab it in OK. Oh look at that. Well it's called a black racer because it's a very fast snake seven miles per hour. That seems really fast for something this size.

The eyes are blue like this because they're there in it's in a primo stage in other words it's getting ready to shed its skin and it'll probably shed about a week after this. This one looks brown or brownish gray just because of its going rate shed sometimes or more of a blue black and he's vibrating stale black racers do that like a lot of snakes when they get nervous very alert snake very large eyes compared to the rest of the snakes. Very visually oriented. Sometimes you encounter him in the field you see they have the third of their body up looking around when they're hunting prey these black racer is a major predator on the young of the rattlesnakes. And right over there where Marty standing is a rookery Ah and that that didn't feel too good. And this snake probably after it sheds will be hungry looking for a meal and our young rattlesnake has a good chance that's might we want to eat. They aren't poisonous but they do bite. Black racers will defend themselves vigorously. Roland is home to

two closely related beautiful green snakes. This beautiful snake is the smooth green snake can only be confused with the rough green snake and the only two species that are bright green like this. The smooth green snake has very smooth scales and isn't quite as long the rough green snake has a very long slender snake. The smooth green snake does occur throughout a lot of the state except on the coastal plain but it's most common in the mountains of Garrett County. One thing interesting about the snake if it gets run over by a car and a few hours after they've they've died they turned blue. So ever find a blue dead snake. It was a green snake. This is a rough grained snake species that's a close cousin to the smooth green snake. The rough green snake those found in the coastal plain and in the Piedmont of Maryland and the key

difference between these two besides size is the scales the rough grain is so named because it's got keeled scales. In other words it's got that line running down the middle of each individual scale which kind of gives it this rough pattern. This is a snake that particularly is found along streams and lakes in shrubby cover and Vine cover another name for the snake is the vine snake. They feed exclusively on insects. Their favorite prey being grasshoppers crickets and spiders. Maryland small snakes range from very common to very rare. Most are quite secretive and seldom seen. There are two subspecies of ringneck snakes in Maryland the northern and the southern. This happens to be a northern rim ringneck snake and I know that because the two characteristics one it's got a completely unbroken ring around its neck in this case is kind of orange ish can also be yellowish and the other thing is if we look at the underside of the snake it doesn't have a line going down the middle southern ringneck snakes have a broken or solid line going

down the middle of this orange belly belly can also be yellowish can also be pinkish actually. This is a woodland snake that spends a lot of its time under rotting logs looking for small woodland salamanders which are part of its diet as well as earthworms and it will also feed on small young lizards. Well here is a red bellied snake one of the most beautiful snakes in Maryland. The red bellied snake is one that really shows tremendous variation. The distinguishing characteristic of the red bellied snake of course is its red belly. And this also shows variation. This is a big red bellied snake and this looks like a female that has young inside in and they'll have those young little later on the summer they're born as miniature replicas of the adults usually they come out fully functional and ready to catch a meal. And snakes in general have three different ways

that they may give birth. They'll either lay eggs. Then there's another system where the female retains eggs. But it's like a shell a say so when they lay on it's almost like a live birth but they break out of a membrane. And then there's the actual live birth where they come out as a little baby snakes. Conditions have to be pretty close to perfect to find mountain earth snakes and Thompson's field research confirmed the earth snake as a state endangered species. The mountain or snake is a very secretive snake found only in certain parts of Garrett County. And there's only five or six sites currently known where it's been captured and this is one of them. We were lucky enough to find this individual today. The brown snake and worm snake are equally secretive but common. This is the northern brown snake. It's one of the small snake species in Maryland. And this is

a full grown adult. They may get a little bit bigger than this. But its distinguishing characteristics are it's an overall brown color that always has a double row of spots going down the back. The brown snake has a brown tongue. These snakes are found state wide from the coastal plain all the way to the mountains. You can find them in suburban areas in vacant lots. You can also find them in wilderness areas in bogs and places of that nature. Here's a little worm snake. Now you notice it looks like a worm. Sometimes you get a little bigger than this. Their characteristics are. It has a really small pointed head with the tiniest eyes of any snake in Maryland and the other thing is the

the abrupt contrast on the side from the brown color into the pink. Most people never see a warm snake unless you actually go look for them there. They're found throughout the state except in the highest mountains. Evidently it's too cold up on the plateau in Garrett County. Beautiful little snake. There you go. It's winter now and all the snakes are going to be hibernating underground. So if you were to look for them today we wouldn't find any. In fact during the past year while we were shooting the show we were able to find about seven or eight species. Why. Because these species are rare threatened or endangered or they're just extremely hard to find. However they're all very important for us to discuss. So let's take a look at these missing species. The beautiful aquatic rainbow snake is so called because of its brilliant colors. It has only been found in Charles County. It is state endangered the semi-aquatic Eastern ribbon snake is less

common now because of loss of wetland habitat and widdling salamander and frog prey. It is found throughout Maryland except for Garrett County although it's quite rare in its western range. The scarlet snake is nocturnal and spends most of its time underground. So little is known about this beautiful snake. It is believed to be rare and is often mistaken for the venomous coral snake which does not occur in Maryland. The mysterious Queen snake is under consideration for addition to the state endangered species list. It feeds almost exclusively on crawfish in small streams but is curiously absent or rare in some Western Maryland counties. There are only seven historic records of the Northern pine snake in Maryland all but one from the Eastern Shore. It is now considered endangered extirpated meaning believed extinct but endangered if we discovered

this move the earth snake is rare in much of its range in central and eastern Maryland but locally common in some areas highly secretive. This snake seldom appears above ground except after cool rains. The state rare and little known Red Belly water snake has a folk name of copper belly moccasin but it is non-venomous it prefers white cedar bald Cypress and Shrub swamps associated with rivers of the lower shore. It's snakes generate a lot of emotion. But to the scientists and the naturalists they're just another form of life on the planet. They may have their place in nature. They're just another creature in the web of life. You're. Drop into our website at w w w dot MP T Dot RG

to send us your comments and suggestions. Maryland is made to serve all of our diverse communities possible by the generous support of our members.