Friday, July 20, 2018

Eastern Hognose Snake

I recently had an interesting encounter with an Eastern Hognose Snake. The snake had gotten itself caught in the mesh of a rat trap that had been set in my barn. My primary concern was releasing the snake from the grip of the wire before it injured itself, so I only took it couple of quick photos before beginning the rescue operation. By snipping and bending a single wire, I was able to quickly release the snake from the trap.

Hognose snakes have a wide repertoire of harmless defensive actions that they employ when they feel threatened. This individual went through the entire routine. It began by flattening of its head and neck in an attempt to look more threatening. As I snipped the cage wire, the snake hissed loudly and produced a guttural noise that sounded almost like a growl. It struck repeatedly at my hands and arms, but its mouth was not open, so all I felt were taps from its nose. As I slid the snake’s body out of the trap, it imitated a death spasm and released a highly pungent poop that splattered on everything nearby. It was an unfortunate circumstance that, due to an ongoing severe thunderstorm, I was performing the rescue operation on the covered front porch of the house.

The next stage in the snake’s act was to play dead. It hung limply from my hand as I took it out for release next to the barn.

Upon being set down, the snake rolled onto its back with mouth agape. 

The above video shows the snake repeatedly rolling over onto its back after being placed belly down.


I left the snake draped around a piece of wood, upright but still looking very much dead. When the thunderstorm abated a few minutes later, I went out to check and found that the snake had moved on. Hognose snakes feed on toads. It’s for this reason that I have been constructing breeding pools in hopes of increasing the toad population. More toads mean more Hognose Snakes, and that’s what I would like to see.

5 comments:

  1. What an interesting encounter. I'm glad you were able to free the snake before he got into too much trouble, I hate to see a snake die unnecessarily. Here we seem to be having a decent snake year. Just garters and ring necked though.

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    1. Hi, Frank. I've only seen four species so far this year, but there's still time for that number to grow.

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  2. Fascinating defense mechanisms -- I didn't know! Snakey was lucky to be trapped in your house instead of some one else's.

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    1. Hi, Jain. I do my best to keep the snakes safe around here.

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  3. Great "catch", you just never know what might turn up or where. Wish we had hognose snakes here, but our soils aren't at all sandy and we have very few toads. Glad you could release it without apparent injury.

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