Coral Snake

Coral snakes are easy to recognize with their distinctive coloration. They have alternating red, yellow and black bands starting with black - yellow - black - yellow - red - black - yellow - red.

The yellow bands are shorter than the black and red bands. However, imitation Coral Snakes exist who have alternating yellow and red bands that are not flanked by black bands, proving that they are not true North American Coral snakes.

A coral snake in water - Costa RicaThe Coral Snakes belongs to genus with the Latin name Micrurus.

Usually they are shorter than 40 inches (1 meter) and have smaller mouths and fangs compared to e.g. the Cottonmouth or the Copperhead. This makes envenomations of humans more difficult.

Habitat
The Coral Snake occupies a variety of habitats. Usually they are found beneath debris or under flatwood in all sorts of places like very dry areas, or areas with a lot of scrub that offer protection from wet areas on the borders of swamps, etc.

Coral Snake Venom
The venom from a Coral Snake will cause weakness and paralysis in severe cases (Heard et al., 1999)1. The paralysis often happens in the respiratory system, but serious injuries from the Coral Snake haven't been reported lately. According to an article by Norris MD (2006)2, less than 1 percent of snake bites in the United States are from Coral Snakes.

Diet
The favorite prey of the coral snake is primarily other reptiles and small lizards, amphibians like frogs and small mammals. It's cannibalistic and doesn't refrain from eating other coral snakes. Young birds and insects are also a part of its daily diet.

Coral Snake Bite
To release its venom into a prey, it has to squeeze its venom containing glands by chewing on its prey. Because it is very secretive in its habit bites on humans are very seldom reported. Prey usually die from either shock or from respiratory paralysis (essentially suffocation) caused by the neurotoxic venom. The smaller you are the more likely a bite from a coral snake will make you pass away. Children tend to be attracted to the snakes bright colors - so keep an eye on those teenagers!.

Life Cycle
Coral snakes lay eggs which hatch out in the open. A female will usually lay 3 to 5 eggs in June or July. Young snakes, at the size of earthworms, hatches 2-3 months later. At the time of hatching the young coral snakes bears the same color pattern as adult snakes.

A saying to help identify the Coral Snake
There's a rhyme that can help you identifying a Coral Snake.

If red touches yellow - it kills a fellow ... or ... are no friend of mine

This means what it says, but the likelihood of actually dying from a Coral Snake bite is very small.

If red touches black, it is a friend of Jack ...

Then it's not a Coral Snake but another snake.