Copperhead | Cartwheel Bay (S.C.)

• Agkistrodon contortrix
• Moderately large, stout-bodied poisonous snake
• Chestnut brown hourglass-shaped crossbands with light centers on body pattern
• Green-yellow tail tips in juveniles
• Pit-viper
• Conspicuous pit on each side of head between eye and nostril
• Senses change of 1/1000 of a degree F
• Catlike pupils
• Eats any animal it can swallow
• Most common venomous snake in eastern United States
• Nonaggressive, but will bite if stepped on or provoked
• Also called highland moccasin or copperhead
• Habitats include wooded hillsides, coastal flatwoods, drier pocosins and rock outcrops by streams