One of the well known watersnake is the dog-faced water snake, a common inhabitant of muddy estuarine creeks, salt pans and brackish ponds and rivers near the sea. It is grey with black marking on the back, and two stripes running behind each eye. It is a rough, dull snake, one of the six species of "rear fanged" swamp snakes in India.
A typical "dog-faced" habitat is near our home where we sometimes go fishing at night. It is brackish tidal creek. At night in flashlight the mud seems to be alive with grey bodies. We have watched "dog-faces" catch and swallow spiny fish and perform elaborate territorial dance in pale moonlight. On land this snake is one of the "side winders". In rapid movement, it does a kind of sideways leap. All brackish watersnakes give birth to about 10 to 30 young at a time.
During the rains when friends tell you that they have seen large number of snakes crossing the road, these are invariably watersnakes. When we are called to catch a snake in somebody’s house it is usually a water snake. And when someone boasts about having killed a venomous snake, it is very often a harmless watersnake. Watersnakes are killed in lakhs for the skin industry once rat snakes and cobra became hard to find.
A typical "dog-faced" habitat is near our home where we sometimes go fishing at night. It is brackish tidal creek. At night in flashlight the mud seems to be alive with grey bodies. We have watched "dog-faces" catch and swallow spiny fish and perform elaborate territorial dance in pale moonlight. On land this snake is one of the "side winders". In rapid movement, it does a kind of sideways leap. All brackish watersnakes give birth to about 10 to 30 young at a time.
During the rains when friends tell you that they have seen large number of snakes crossing the road, these are invariably watersnakes. When we are called to catch a snake in somebody’s house it is usually a water snake. And when someone boasts about having killed a venomous snake, it is very often a harmless watersnake. Watersnakes are killed in lakhs for the skin industry once rat snakes and cobra became hard to find.
