That is the cottonmouth’s threat display, and that’s all it is—a display. In a recent study about how snakes respond to human encounters, University of Georgia herpetologist Whit Gibbons donned snake-proof boots and went to the swamp looking for any variety of the six venomous snakes native to the southeast (Virginia has three, including the copperhead and the timber rattlesnake, both found statewide): “I stand for 30 seconds beside the animal wherever it is found,” he writes. “Next I place my snake-proof boot lightly in the middle of its back, just enough to restrain it.” Of the “dozens” of cottonmouths he met this way, all made threat displays, and none bit the boot. The lesson? If you see a cottonmouth, simply move away.
Venom is biologically expensive to a snake—any used means less for the hunt—but they’ll use it if the threat doesn’t abate. People are bitten most often when trying to catch or kill a snake. Even then, fatalities are very rare: Think of the countless hunting dogs bitten each year. Very, very few of them perish.
In the unlikely event of a venomous snakebite, according to the Virginia Herpetological Society, the best thing to do is head for the ER. In the meantime, mark the bite site with a Sharpie, remove any rings or other constricting jewelry, have the person lie flat with feet raised, and apply a pressure bandage. Skip the tourniquet, which traps venom and may speed necrosis, and don’t even think about sucking it out by mouth or cutting out that chunk of flesh with your handy Bowie knife. You are not in a cowboy movie.
And if a brown water snake drops into your boat, don’t shoot. That would be serpentine logic indeed.
(Originally published in the August 2008 issue.)
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