Mud Snake (Farancia abacura)
Family: Colubrid Family (Colubridae)
IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern
Found mainly in rivers and swamps across much of the southeastern USA, the Mud Snake spends much of its life in the water, feeding primarily on large salamanders such as sirens and amphiumas and typically coming onto land only to bask, lay eggs or travel to other bodies of water during periods of drought. While they lack the venom that many aquatic snakes rely on to subdue prey, members of this species possess a large number of unusually long, curved teeth that aid them in catching slippery animals before swallowing them whole; when threatened they curl their bodies into tight coils and flash their striking red-striped bellies at perceived attackers, although as their teeth are made more for gripping than injuring and they lack venom, this is largely a bluff. Between October and November, when the weather in their native range becomes colder and their prey becomes scarcer, Mud Snakes enter a prolonged state of dormancy in muddy crevices or abandoned burrows, and after emerging again in the spring adults mate, with females laying clutches of over 100 eggs shortly afterwards, leaving them in wet, sheltered places where they will be kept warm and damp until they hatch roughly 60 days later.
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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/30106-Farancia-abacura
