FANGS OF FURY
HOWTO IDENTIFY AND AVOID THE VENOMOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA
STORY BY RYAN LEE PRICE
There are dozens of different species of snakes in the United States, but only a handful are venomous. If you are to run into a venomous snake, odds are good it is a rattlesnake, as there are 27 different types.
MEG JERRARD / UNSPLASH
Venomous snakes can be found in warmer climates all over the world.
Out of more than 3,000 species of snakes, about 600 of them are venomous, one third of which pose a medical emergency. For example, the king cobra can inject almost 1.5 teaspoons of venom into a human, but that’s more than what’s needed to kill up to 20 people, whereas the Australian coastal taipan delivers 10 times the venom needed to kill a person. The black mamba, death adder, and the diamondback rattlesnake are among the world’s deadliest snakes.
It is estimated by the World Health Organization that around 2.7 million people are bitten by venomous snakes each year (and about 125,000 people worldwide die as a result). In the United States, by contrast, there are only about 9,000 bites each year and deaths are very rare—less than a dozen. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
DENS AND HABITS
Venomous snakes found in the United States include rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths/ water moccasins, and coral snakes. Although the vast majority of venomous species in the U.S. is the rattlesnake, copperheads account for more bites than any other. They are all over the United States, especially in the warmer southern climates.
The tell-tale signs of a rattlesnake threat is the coiled up body and the ominous rattling of its tail.
DUNCAN SANCHEZ / UNSPLASH
Rattlesnakes are probably the most popular snake in terms of what people think of when picturing a venomous snake. There are 29 different species of rattler scattered all over the U.S., from the timber rattlesnake found in the Eastern United States, to the western diamondback, which populates the American Southwest. Rattlesnakes can range from one to eight feet, depending on the species (the big one is the eastern diamondback). They are thick snakes with ridged scales in a variety of colors and patterns, such as dark diamonds, rhombuses, or hexagons on a lighter background.