The Copperhead Institute

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An interesting field study by University of Memphis graduate researcher Malle Carrasco-Harris

Catching ’em all–copperheads, that is | Overton Park

Late October copperheads in the upstate of South Carolina still active in the unusually warm weather.

Snake fungal disease: an emerging threat to wild snakes Since 2006, there has been a marked increase in the number of reports of severe and often fatal fungal skin infections in wild snakes in the eastern USA. The emerging condition, referred to as snake fungal disease (SFD), was initially documented in rattlesnakes, where the infections were believed to...

This may not look like much at first, but it's actually quite interesting. It's a thermal image of a shelf rock where pregnant female snakes bask. The blue streak running diagonally from the upper left to lower right is the opening under the shelf rock (darker colors like blue are cool temperatures, lighter colors like red and white are warm or hot). The rock itself is in the upper right corner, and the bright white spot is where moments before a pregnant timber rattlesnake was coiled. The temperature in the spot is approximately 102-103 degrees even though the air temperature at the time was around 78, with mostly sunny skies.

The highlight of a great day in the field...adult timber rattlesnakes, neonate timber rattlesnakes, and adult copperheads (ready to produce young themselves) all under one rock. A tough shot to get, they are all about a foot back under the rock in complete darkness with only about five inches of headroom to work with.

An aggregation of six females seen today. Certainly most if not all are just a couple weeks away from producing young.

A couple of about 25 seen today, mostly all close to giving birth.