A revolutionary online art gallery and custom frame shop. ArtSelect also offers toll free customer service and art consulting services to discuss your artistic preferences with their trained consulting staff and to help you make informed buying decisions. This extremely variable species has black, yellow, brown, tan or reddish crossbands usually throughout the length of the body and a dark stripe from the eye to the angle of the jaw, and squarish or triangular dark markings on the venter.
Juveniles have bold patterns, whereas adults often have obscure ones.
Most Banded Water Snakes darken with age and black pigment starts to obscure the markings - as in this photo. Banded Water Snakes are common in most permanent and semipermanent fresh water environments in the coastal plain of the Carolinas south of Abermarle Sound. The habits of this species are similar to those of many other water snakes. Individuals flee at the slightest disturbance, but if restrained or cornered, they bite vigorously and void musk from their cloacal glands. However, their bites, like those of other local nonvenomous snakes, produce only superficial scratches.