Serpents figure prominently in the mythologies of nearly all human cultures, sometimes as a symbol of evil and temptation. It is perhaps for this reason that snakes often are persecuted and killed without any understanding of their true nature. Snakes play critical roles in the environments where they occur, primarily by the position they hold in food webs in natural communities.
Many snakes are top level predators; for example, a single rat snake can consume over rodents a year. Other snakes are important in the control they exert on insect and other invertebrate populations. All snakes form part of the diet of other predators such as hawks and foxes and thereby serve to link higher and lower feeding levels.
The most widespread and frequently encountered snakes in New York state are the garter snake and the water snake. Garter snakes use a wide variety of habitats, from woodlands to marshes to fields and exist quite well around human habitations.
These snakes, like many other species, are variable in color and pattern; the basic color is dark brown or green with three yellowish stripes down their sides and back. They may reach lengths of two feet, but are typically smaller. They are completely harmless to people. The water snake is found in and around almost any waterbody or wetland in the state.
As an adult, it is a stout animal typically dark brown to black with lighter-colored bands and splotches along its length. This is most pronounced in young individuals adults may appear solid black. It is the only large up to 42 inches water snake in our range. This species is frequently called or mistaken for a cottonmouth water moccasin ; this latter species is a large venomous snake that does not occur within our state borders.
This confusion is understandable as our water snake is certainly an aggressive species with a nasty disposition and it does bear a superficial resemblance to the cottonmouth.
The milk snake has given rise to more misconceptions than perhaps any other species. Its name is derived from the decidedly false belief that it will milk cows! It is, however, frequently encountered in barns in search of its rodent prey it also eats other snakes. The milk snake is a boldly patterned serpent brown or reddish blotches on a light grey to tan body that vibrates its tail when annoyed. Timber rattlers shun very high altitudes, but otherwise favor hilly and mountainous areas throughout the Appalachians.
Once more widely distributed in New York State, they are now found mainly in isolated populations in southeastern New York, the Southern Tier and the peripheral eastern Adirondacks. The state long encouraged the killing of venomous snakes, even awarding bounties until they were outlawed in Nowadays the timber rattlesnake is protected by law.
In June of , a contractor at a construction site in the Town of Woodstock was issued a summons for possession of threatened species parts, after killing a timber rattler at a job site and cutting off the head and rattle for souvenirs. Recovery of rattlesnake populations in the state has been slow, due to unregulated collection and indiscriminate killing. Many are run over by automobiles during their most active months, in the summer. This was a big deal. Rattlesnakes held in captivity live an average of 15 years.
Richard might. That would be Richard Watkins, a local resident whose passion for rattlers has become so genuine that he once reported a close friend who killed one with a rock.
As we trooped up a flight of wooden steps to his secluded property—a comfortable series of cabins nooked into a hillside and surrounded by an expansive deck—Watkins, a youthful-looking 59, greeted us with ice water and began to recall his early experiences with local rattlers.
When he was a kid, the bounty was still in effect. Since meeting Brown in , Watkins has more than atoned for his sin. Brown delivered a pair of snake tongs and showed the family how to capture a rattler.
Watkins agreed to participate, but not before purchasing longer tongs, a tool he has since used to capture scores of rattlesnakes, once wrangling three of them into a cooler before calling Brown. Watkins and his wife, Lisa Conrad, have accepted rattlesnakes as part of the ecosystem. One of their cats has been bitten and survived. Another was struck at and missed. But he catches and contains every snake he sees.
If Watkins has gone from rattler killer to ardent conservationist, his neighbor Donald Kreuzer has gone from tolerating rattlers to admiring and respecting them.
Kreuzer started visiting the region from his hometown on Long Island as a child, later doing construction work for a summer cottage owner. Then the neighbors convinced him that he could do more than just see the snakes. He could call Brown. One day Kreuzer did. And Brown, as Brown does, came by and danced his dance. He explained why they mattered to the ecosystem, and he reminded them what it meant to live in the wilderness.
Kreuzer, now a dentist in Washington, D. And the experience has been fantastic. I understood. Of course, my understanding—not to mention that of Watkins and Kreuzer—is rare. Even so, he never gives up. Thriving throughout the Hudson Valley in wooded areas where our residents like to go hiking and swimming, you'll want to seek immediate medical attention if you're bitten by any of these three snakes in our state.
If you live in the Hudson Valley and want to avoid inviting these sort of slithering friends into your area, then be sure to be mindful of keeping rodent populations down, store firewood in a box or shed instead of the outdoors, avoid using wood-based mulch as much as you can, keep your yard clear, and seal any gaps or holes in your foundation that the snakes can hibernate into.
To find out more about New York's venomous snakes, click here. New York In Your Inbox spinner. Thank you!
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