Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus)

When alarmed, a Cottonmouth throw its head back and open its mouth in a threat display.

The cottony pink-white mouth lining gives these animals their common name.

Note vertical pupils.

Incredibly beautiful ventral pattern on this individual.

Cottonmouths frequent stream banks and logs along streams.

Cottonmouths swim with their heads out of the water, and their bodies ride high in the water, very different from non-venomous water snakes (like the Northern Water Snake) in North Carolina whose heads barely protrude and whose bodies are mostly under water.

Found along the roadside draped under a dead Redbelly Water Snake (roadkilled or victim of the Cottonmouth itself?), this Cottonmouth was one of the largest and fattest I've ever seen.

Note the vertical pupils, an indication that this is one of North Carolina's six species of venomous snakes.

The Eastern Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus piscivorus) is the subspecies found in North Carolina.

Some individuals are mostly chocolate brown with little pattern.

Here's a youngster that I almost stepped on. Fortunately the temp was in the 50s and s/he was pretty sluggish.

The Florida subspecies of Cottonmouth inhabits most of the state of Florida and barely into southern Georgia and Alabama.