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Photos: Georgia’s venomous snakes and how to identify them
Here's how to identify venomous snakes (and not get bitten) and some advice from Georgia snake experts about rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, copperhead snakes and others you want to avoid.
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The UGA Savannah River Ecology Laboratory Herpetology Program (http://srelherp.uga.edu) offers everything you need to know to stay safe around snakes. We turn to them for information here and start with the WATER MOCCASIN (also called the COTTONMOUTH). These snakes are semi-aquatic (found on both land and in water), have triangular heads, are heavy-bodied, vary in coloration and have large jowls. Water moccasins/Cottonmouths can be active day or night, but typically feed in the dark when it’s hot. Their range is the entire Southeast, but in Georgia they’re typically found in the southern Coastal Plain area. You can, of course, come across them in metro Atlanta. They can be found in nearly all freshwater habitats but are most common in cypress swamps, river floodplains, and heavily-vegetated wetlands. In this file photo, Whit Gibbons uses a mechanical hand covered by a glove to pick up a Water Moccasin he found on the Savannah River Site near Aiken, SC. (Please don’t do this.) STEPHEN MORTON/AP FILE
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