Reptiles
Eastern Copperhead
Agkistrodon contortrix · also called copperhead, highland moccasin, chunkhead
The eastern copperhead is the snake that bites the most Americans and kills almost none of them. Both facts come from the same trait — faced with a threat, it does not run and it does not rattle. It sits perfectly still, trusting a camouflage so good that people step on it.
Overview
Agkistrodon contortrix lives across the eastern and central United States, in deciduous forest, rocky hillsides, stream edges, and wooded suburbs. It is a stout pit viper, 60–90 cm long, pinkish-tan with hourglass crossbands and a coppery head, and it hunts mice, frogs, and lizards — climbing trees to feast during cicada emergences.
Many bites, mild venom
It causes more venomous snakebites than any other US snake, because it is common where people garden and relies on stillness rather than warning. But its venom is the weakest of the American pit vipers; bites are painful and swell badly but rarely cause lasting harm, antivenom is often unnecessary, and deaths are extremely rare.
The lure
Young copperheads have a bright yellow-green tail tip they wave like a caterpillar to draw frogs and lizards within reach.
Status
Least Concern and stable, tolerant of suburban woods, though roads, killing, and den destruction reduce local numbers.
Eastern Copperhead: common questions
How dangerous is a copperhead bite?
It is painful and needs medical attention, but it is rarely dangerous to a healthy adult. Copperhead venom is the mildest of the North American pit vipers, and the snake often delivers little or no venom in a defensive strike. A typical bite causes intense local pain, rapid swelling, bruising, and sometimes blistering around the wound, which resolves over days to weeks; lasting damage and systemic effects are uncommon. Antivenom is frequently withheld for copperhead bites because the risks of the treatment can outweigh the benefits for a mild envenomation, though it is used for severe cases, for bites to children, and for bites to the hand or face. Deaths are extraordinarily rare, on the order of one every few years across the whole United States despite thousands of bites.
Why do copperheads bite so many people if they are not aggressive?
Because their defence is to hold still. A copperhead's camouflage is superb, and its instinct when a person or animal approaches is to stay motionless and rely on not being seen, without rattling or fleeing. That works against most threats, but it means people routinely walk right up to a copperhead, step over it, place a hand near it while gardening or moving firewood, or sit down beside one, and the snake bites only when it is actually trodden on or grabbed. Add that copperheads are abundant in exactly the leafy, rocky, semi-wooded suburbs where lots of people live and garden, and the encounter rate is high even though the snake wants nothing to do with anyone.
Do copperheads really smell like cucumbers?
Some people report it, and there is a grain of truth to it. When alarmed or handled, a copperhead, like many snakes, releases a musk from glands at the base of the tail, a defensive secretion meant to be unpleasant. Descriptions of the smell vary from cucumber to green bell pepper to something more sickly, and not everyone detects it. It is not a reliable way to know a copperhead is nearby, since the snake has to be quite close and disturbed to produce it, and other snakes musk too. Treat it as a curiosity rather than a warning system.
How do you tell a copperhead from a harmless snake?
The key marks are the hourglass crossbands, which are wide on the sides and narrow across the back, the opposite of most harmless banded snakes, on a pinkish-tan background, along with a coppery, unmarked head, a stout body, a vertical cat-like pupil, and a heat-sensing pit between the eye and nostril. Young northern water snakes and juvenile black rat snakes are the species most often mistaken for copperheads and killed unnecessarily; both have blotches that are wider on top than on the sides, round pupils, and no facial pit. When in doubt, keep your distance and let the snake move off; there is no need to identify it up close.