Eastern Copperhead

The eastern copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix, formally described by Linnaeus in 1766, is a widespread venomous pit viper of the subfamily Crotalinae native to eastern North America, ranging from Connecticut and Massachusetts south to Florida and west to Texas and into bordering Mexican states. It shows dark brown, hourglass-shaped markings on a light reddish-brown or brown-gray background, adults measuring 50 to 95 centimeters, occasionally over a meter, males typically 74 to 76 centimeters and females 60 to 66 centimeters, with juveniles bearing green or yellow tail tips that darken within a year. It inhabits deciduous and mixed woodlands, rocky outcrops and swampy areas, often hibernating in dens alongside timber rattlesnakes and black rat snakes, and rather than fleeing it tends to freeze and rely on camouflage, a behavior that makes it responsible for roughly half of the venomous snakebites treated annually in the United States.