PICTURE INFO:A slithering Rough Green Snake I happened upon last summer as I was walking one of my favorite trails.
This shot was taken at the Fort Worth Nature Center in Texas, USA.
Equipment: Camera Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm Micro len
This shot was taken at the Fort Worth Nature Center in Texas, USA.
Equipment: Camera Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm Micro len
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| ROUGH GREEN SNAKE |
COMMON NAME: Green snake, tree snake, or summer tree snake
DESCRIPTION: Rough green snakes are fairly long,
slender snakes with long tapering tails. Adults are usually between 20
and 32 inches in length, but occasionally may be as long as 40
inches. They usually are 1 inch or less in diameter. Rough green snakes
are a uniform bright green color with an ivory or off white belly and a
pale white throat. Young rough green snakes usually are more dully
colored until they shed their skin for the first time. Rough green
snakes have large eyes and particularly good vision. This allows them to
see and capture quick moving insects which are often the same color as
the snakes themselves. Rough green snakes have keeled (ridged) scales.
This gives them a rougher feel than the similar smooth green snake.
DISTRIBUTION: Rough green snakes are common
throughout the eastern and southeastern United States. They are found
from southern New Jersey west to eastern Kansas and Texas and south to
Florida. Some small populations have been found in New Mexico.
HABITAT: Rough green snakes are found in a
variety of habitats. They inhabit uplands and wetlands as well as many
habitat types in between. Rough green snakes are particularly abundant
along the edges of ponds or streams where they can be found in the
overhanging branches of trees and shrubs. They sometimes take to the
water in pursuit of prey.
FEEDING HABITS: Rough green snakes spend the
majority of their life in trees and shrubs hunting for crickets,
grasshoppers, spiders, caterpillars, and an occasional small tree
frog. Rough green snakes are not constrictors. They simply grasp their
food with tiny recurved teeth and swallow their prey alive.
LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY: Rough green snakes mate
in both spring and fall. Females lay 3-12 cylindrical eggs, usually in
rotting logs or under rocks, during June or July. After an incubation
period of 5-12 weeks, the eggs hatch and young emerge in late summer or
early fall. Hatchlings are approximately 6 inches in length. Rough green
snakes are extremely well camouflaged. Their bright, leaf-green
coloration makes them virtually invisible among tangled
vegetation. Their primary defense mechanism against predation or capture
is to remain motionless until an opportunity for escape presents
itself. Like many snakes, when first captured or handled, rough green
snakes will distend their cloacae and expel a noxious mixture of feces,
uric acid, and musk.
REFERENCES:
Conant, R., J. Collins. 1991. Peterson Field Guides: Reptiles and
Amphibians of Eastern/Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Co.
Plummer, M.V. 1997. Population ecology of green snakes (Opheodrys aestivus) revisited. Herpetological Monographs 11:102-123.
Author: Kevin Pugh, Wildlife Biologist, Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries
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