Animalia > Chordata > Squamata > Viperidae > Agkistrodon > Agkistrodon contortrix

Agkistrodon contortrix (Southern Copperhead)

Synonyms: Agkistrodon contortrix phaeogaster; Agkistrodon mokason; Boa contortrix; Cenchris mokeson

Wikipedia Abstract

Agkistrodon contortrix is a species of venomous snake endemic to Eastern North America, a member of the Crotalinae (pit viper) subfamily. The common name for this species is the Copperhead. The behavior of Agkistrodon contortrix may lead to accidental encounters with humans. Five subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.
View Wikipedia Record: Agkistrodon contortrix

Infraspecies

Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix (Southern copperhead)
Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen (northern copperhead)
Agkistrodon contortrix pictigaster (Trans-pecos copperhead)

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.094 lbs (950 g)
Female Maturity [2]  2 years
Male Maturity [2]  2 years
Litter Size [2]  6
Maximum Longevity [2]  30 years
Venomous [3]  Yes

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No

Habitat Vegetation Classification

Name Location  Website 
Black Oak - White Oak - Hickory Forest United States (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana); Canada (Ontario)
Interior Low Plateau Chestnut Oak Forest United States (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee)
Interior Low Plateau Mesic Bottomland Forest United States (Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio)
Interior Low Plateau Post Oak Dry Barrens United States (Illinois, Kentucky)
Maple - Ash - Elm Swamp Canada (Ontario); United States (Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan)
Overcup Oak - Sweetgum Bottomland Forest United States (Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana)
Ozark-Ouachita Shortleaf Pine - Black Oak Woodland United States (Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas)
Post Oak - White Oak Dry-Mesic Barrens United States (Illinois)
Silver Maple - Sugarberry - Pecan Floodplain Forest United States (Tennessee, Illinois, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana)
Southern Red Oak - Mixed Oak Forest United States (Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky)
Swamp Chestnut Oak - Sweetgum Floodplain Forest United States (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois)
Willow Oak Bottomland Flatwoods Forest United States (Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas)

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Buteo jamaicensis (Red-tailed Hawk)[4]
Chelydra serpentina (Common Snapping Turtle)[4]
Didelphis virginiana (Virginia Opossum)[4]
Strix varia (Barred Owl)[4]
Vulpes vulpes (Red Fox)[4]

Providers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Venomous snakes and antivenoms search interface, World Health Organization
♦ 4Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 5FOOD HABITS OF THE COPPERHEAD IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE, John S. Garton and Ralph W. Dimmick, Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science Volume 44, Number 4, October, 1969, pp. 113-117
♦ 6Blarina carolinensis, Timothy S. McCay, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 673, pp. 1–7 (2001)
♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 8Resources of a Snake Community in Prairie-Woodland Habitat of Northeastern Kansas, Henry S. Fitch, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife Research Report 13: 83-98 (1982)
♦ 9Microtus chrotorrhinus, Gordon L. Kirkland, Jr. and Frederick J. Jannett, Jr., Mammalian Species No. 180, pp. 1-5 (1982)
♦ 10Napaeozapus insignis, John O. Whitaker, Jr., and Robert E. Wrigley, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 14, pp. 1-6 (1972)
♦ 11Tadarida brasiliensis, Kenneth T. Wilkins, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 331, pp. 1-10 (1989)
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0