10/22/2026
My lifer MUD SNAKE. Found in the swamps of Louisiana with
I've put in some serious effort targeting this species over the years. They're actually a fairly common species - just extremely elusive. The habitat they occupy revolves entirely around the presence of a single aquatic salamander species - they specialize in hunting this prey and can attribute nearly 100% of their diet here.
Two defense mechanisms (there are more):
• A sharp pointed tail that they use to poke predators when attacked. Sounds silly but it works! It doesn't hurt much… but it i could imagine it's quite startling if you aren't expecting it.
• Bright red belly. In the wild, bright red coloration is typically used to send the signal "hey, I'm venomous" or in many cases "hey, I'm tryna trick you into thinking I'm venomous". The latter is the case for non-venomous mud snakes. This is known as mimicry; although there isn't really a red-bellied venomous species in North America that it "mimics" per say. The red coloration alone is enough to deter some predators.
Anyways, I still can't believe we found this snake. What an incredible way to end an awesome roadtrip!
