Head to head
Southern Hognose Snake vs Eastern Hognose Snake
A southern hognose snake and an eastern hognose snake are close relatives sharing the same signature cobra-hood-then-play-dead defensive routine, though one performs it with considerably more theatrical detail and one has fared far worse across its range.
| Southern Hognose Snake | Eastern Hognose Snake | |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Heterodon simus | Heterodon platirhinos |
| Size | Smaller | Larger, up to about a metre |
| Death-feigning detail | Hood, hiss, then play dead | Vomits, voids bowels, smears itself, plays dead |
| Quality of the death act | Simpler bluff | Elaborate but famously unconvincing |
| Diet | Toads almost exclusively | Toads, frogs, salamanders, small reptiles |
| Venom | None of medical significance | Mild rear-fang venom, harmless to people |
| Range trend | Sharply declined across its range | Widespread but locally patchy and declining |
| Conservation status | Vulnerable | Least Concern |
Southern Hognose Snake vs Eastern Hognose Snake: common questions
Which hognose snake puts on the more dramatic death act?
The eastern hognose snake performs the more elaborate routine, thrashing as if in agony, voiding its bowels, sometimes vomiting a recent meal, and smearing itself with the resulting mess to smell like a corpse before rolling belly-up with its tongue hanging out, considerably more theatrical than the southern hognose snake's simpler hood-hiss-and-play-dead sequence.
Is the eastern hognose snake actually a convincing actor?
Not really — a death-feigning eastern hognose snake will roll back onto its belly if turned right-side up, immediately giving away the performance, and it typically "revives" and slinks off once it believes the threat has passed, undercutting its otherwise impressively committed act.
Why is the southern hognose snake more at risk than the eastern hognose snake?
The southern hognose snake has disappeared from a large portion of its historical range in the southeastern coastal plain due to habitat loss and fragmentation, earning it a Vulnerable status, while the eastern hognose snake, though also declining in patches, remains comparatively widespread enough to be classified as Least Concern.