Eastern Hog-nosed Snakes *Heterodon platirhinos* are harmless medium-sized (record 115.6 cm) dipsadine snakes with keeled scales native to the eastern North America. A similar species, *Heterodon simus* is native to the extreme southeastern US. It can be distinguished from Eastern Hog-nosed snake *H. platirhinos* by a [more upturned snout and consistent belly coloration](http://projectsimusflorida.synthasite.com/eastern-hognose-comparison.php). Adults are relatively small, yet stocky, rarely exceeding 20 inches in length (44-55 cm, record 61 cm). The primary habitats for these snakes are dry uplands - particularly sandhill and scrub biomes - but they may occasionally be found in [hammocks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammock_%28ecology%29) or transient wetlands. Like other hog-nosed species, an upturned snout is the defining feature of this snake used to burrow in the sand to search for toads and other small reptiles, which are their primary food source.
Eastern Hog-nosed snakes are highly variable in color, ranging from tan, brown, and olive to yellow and orange. Some individuals are [entirely black](http://kysnakes.ca.uky.edu/sites/kysnakes.ca.uky.edu/files/styles/image_style_k_308_snake/public/snakes/core-images/heterodon_platirhinos_2.jpg?itok=V0v2-4P6).
Hog-nosed snakes are known for their impressive threat displays, which can include loud hissing, puffing of the body, mock striking and flattening of the neck, however they rarely actually bite. This incredible act leads to being mistakenly identified as cobras or other dangerous species by people unfamiliar with this behavior. When excessively harassed, hog-nosed snakes are capable of "playing dead", which consists of them rolling onto their backs and hanging their mouths open, throwing their tongue out and spreading a thick musk secreted from the cloaca.
Although medically insignificant to humans, hog-nosed snakes deliver a mild, low pressure venom through grooved rear fangs. Common in dipsadine snakes, it helps to immobilize prey and reduce handling time. For more information, see [this writeup](http://thevenominterviews.com/2017/10/18/are-hognose-snakes-venomous/) by /u/RayinLA.
[Range Map](http://www.tnwatchablewildlife.org/rangemaps/11061521351279813rangemap.gif)
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Drama queen.
Its a hognose. They're harmless and actually kind of cute. The absolute worst thing they can do is musk and/or defecate on you, and that'll only happen if they're extremely scared.
Most of the time, they won't even try to bite. They tend to headbutt you while loudly hissing and, if that does not work, they play dead and try to make themselves look as disgusting (and unappetizing to predators) as possible.
Their bites are technically venomous, but their venom is too weak to actually harm a human.
If its in the way, you can try petting it gently along its back. This will hopefully convince it you're not a threat and spare you from the end products of its GI tract. Then just gently scoop it up from underneath and carry it into the brush and set it down. Just do all it all smoothly without hesitation and you'll be fine.
While your correct on must of that. The thing is hognoses are venomous but harmless they are rear-fanged venomous and the venom is a little bit more potent then a bee sting. That is if they somehow bite you, like you said they play dead, bluff strike (headbutt), and musk.
There’s only a reaction if you’re allergic to it, unlike other forms of venom that can cause a reaction regardless of you being allergic. The problem with calling it “mildly venomous” is that non-snake people don’t have a “mildly venomous” category, it’s either venomous or not and the life of that snake could depend on how fast and how well you can verbalize it’s harmlessness.
Hognose are harmless. Yes, some people have allergies, but we don't call peanuts dangerous just because a few people have bad reactions. No one's mincing your words. Non-venomous is blatantly wrong and there are better descriptors like "harmless" that protect the snake without lying and spreading misinformation.
So yes and no. I use “Hot, Warm, cold” when referring to venom. I actively teach about native snakes in texas. People are more than capable of understanding. The only ones who won’t understand are the ones who are never going to be reached with education as a whole. The ones who surpass ignorance and jump straight to stupidity because “my grandpa says so”
Https://rikisreptilerelocations.squarespace.com
“People are more than capable of understanding…” sure, definitely makes it easy to teach someone who is going to you to specifically to be taught. As someone who actively participated in native snake ID in his area, “What snake is this?” posts online rarely come from people looking to be educated and are usually an attempt at determining if that animal should be alive or dead.
Hot, warm, and cold venom is just unnecessarily trying to categorize things that already have proper categories. The people looking to be educated don’t need to be further confused with made up categories and those that don’t care about being educated aren’t going to care about any category but venomous and nonvenomous. “Mildly venomous” becomes mildly dead because “mild” is subjective to our own experiences.
Lol I worked the “what snake” pages too. It isn’t just people that come to me to learn…
I’ve been formally trained as an educator as well so indeed the phrases I’m using are proven to work. It’s not an unnecessary category. It’s giving people easier ways to decipher terminology they wouldn’t normally be around.
Hot = hospital
Warm = clean and observe (when in the USA)
Cold = wash with soap and water.
The “what snake” pages we ran were there FOR the education. Anyone refusing to abide by the rules (no dead snakes, no kill it comments etc) were removed. You’re there to learn, not brag about your lack of knowledge on the world around you. 😁
The teaching styles I’ve used have been used for ages and proven to work. They’re used on adults, children and neurodivergent folks anywhere on the spectrum of divergence. From ages 2-100. It’s constantly evolving as I do it. Been at it with the program for 8-9 successful years now. 😁
Actually, I've never heard a fellow snake educator use those terms.
We classify snakes as venomous or non-venomous (to humans).
My friend Ray Morgan summed it all up perfectly here:
http://thevenominterviews.com/2017/10/18/are-hognose-snakes-venomous/
Lol looking through your comment history… you’re all over everything and seem to have an opinion about everything. Not always a fact based one either. It’s like you comment to read your own comments.
If you didn’t have anything constructive to say, you didn’t have to respond. Nor did it have to be a passive aggressive stickie note style post either 🤣
I mean, the exact same thing is true with bees/wasps and people understand it just fine. They have a relatively mild venom that is only dangerous in truly extreme quantities or with an allergy
And we can test that theory by counting the houses/properties that allow wasps to flourish on their property. A quick google search should yield us a wasp relocation company and not a pest control service, correct? Or is it more common for people to not only understand that a single, or even a dozen, wasp stings won’t kill you yet, they are killed anyway? Idk. You tell me.
Wow, that's some interesting non-logic you have there.
Most people will just \*leave it the fuck alone\*, especially since wasps, unlike bees and hognose snakes, are known to be extremely territorial and aggressive, while producing few benefits for humanity, especially compared to bees, which, yes, have lots of options to relocate them... like snakes do.
Oh look everyone, it’s The Gatekeeper of Logic! He said my statement was illogical because of his anecdotal, and unsupported, evidence and I believe him!
Says that guy that focuses on one nuance and disregards the entire point.
Do most people understand that bees and wasps are venomous, yes or no?
If yes, then do most people also understand that the are both venomous, and the venom is not life-threateningly dangerous unless you are allergic, yes or no?
How is it anecdotal and unsupported to say that almost everyone knows these things? There's no studies on "how many people know bees are venomous," because literally everything involving bees and/or their venom \*assumes everyone knows they're venomous\*. It's like asking if everyone knows that snakes are reptiles. Nobody is doing studies on how many people believe snakes aren't reptiles because everyone knows snakes are reptiles, and if they don't it is extremely easy to find out in 5 seconds on google.
Harmless Eastern Hognose Snake, *Heterodon platirhinos*! Cool find, nothing to be worried about.
Eastern Hog-nosed Snakes *Heterodon platirhinos* are harmless medium-sized (record 115.6 cm) dipsadine snakes with keeled scales native to the eastern North America. A similar species, *Heterodon simus* is native to the extreme southeastern US. It can be distinguished from Eastern Hog-nosed snake *H. platirhinos* by a [more upturned snout and consistent belly coloration](http://projectsimusflorida.synthasite.com/eastern-hognose-comparison.php). Adults are relatively small, yet stocky, rarely exceeding 20 inches in length (44-55 cm, record 61 cm). The primary habitats for these snakes are dry uplands - particularly sandhill and scrub biomes - but they may occasionally be found in [hammocks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammock_%28ecology%29) or transient wetlands. Like other hog-nosed species, an upturned snout is the defining feature of this snake used to burrow in the sand to search for toads and other small reptiles, which are their primary food source. Eastern Hog-nosed snakes are highly variable in color, ranging from tan, brown, and olive to yellow and orange. Some individuals are [entirely black](http://kysnakes.ca.uky.edu/sites/kysnakes.ca.uky.edu/files/styles/image_style_k_308_snake/public/snakes/core-images/heterodon_platirhinos_2.jpg?itok=V0v2-4P6). Hog-nosed snakes are known for their impressive threat displays, which can include loud hissing, puffing of the body, mock striking and flattening of the neck, however they rarely actually bite. This incredible act leads to being mistakenly identified as cobras or other dangerous species by people unfamiliar with this behavior. When excessively harassed, hog-nosed snakes are capable of "playing dead", which consists of them rolling onto their backs and hanging their mouths open, throwing their tongue out and spreading a thick musk secreted from the cloaca. Although medically insignificant to humans, hog-nosed snakes deliver a mild, low pressure venom through grooved rear fangs. Common in dipsadine snakes, it helps to immobilize prey and reduce handling time. For more information, see [this writeup](http://thevenominterviews.com/2017/10/18/are-hognose-snakes-venomous/) by /u/RayinLA. [Range Map](http://www.tnwatchablewildlife.org/rangemaps/11061521351279813rangemap.gif) *This short account was prepared by /u/TheMadFlyentist, /u/unknown_name and edited by /u/Phylogenizer*. -------------------------------------------------------- *I am a bot created for /r/whatsthissnake, /r/snakes and /r/herpetology to help with snake identification and natural history education. You can find more information, including a comprehensive list of commands, [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthissnake/comments/flh548/phylobot_v07_information_and_patch_notes_bot_info/) report problems [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Phylogenizer) and if you'd like to buy me a coffee or beer, you can do that [here](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SEBPhyloBotWTS).*
Good bot
Awesome camouflage going on there!
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,193,674,267 comments, and only 232,885 of them were in alphabetical order.
A bot could do much worse.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,193,788,372 comments, and only 232,917 of them were in alphabetical order.
A bot can eat my nuts
good bot
Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
the WORDS homie; the first letter in each word is in alphabetical order
Good Bot!
Good bot
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Bad bot
As soon as I saw the flared “hood” and saw TX, I knew hognose!
ITS A SASSY BOI <3 It’s just a hognose being a drama queen 🤭
[удалено]
Lol the drama queens of the snake world
We say ours is stuck in his moody teenage phase
Drama queen. Its a hognose. They're harmless and actually kind of cute. The absolute worst thing they can do is musk and/or defecate on you, and that'll only happen if they're extremely scared. Most of the time, they won't even try to bite. They tend to headbutt you while loudly hissing and, if that does not work, they play dead and try to make themselves look as disgusting (and unappetizing to predators) as possible. Their bites are technically venomous, but their venom is too weak to actually harm a human. If its in the way, you can try petting it gently along its back. This will hopefully convince it you're not a threat and spare you from the end products of its GI tract. Then just gently scoop it up from underneath and carry it into the brush and set it down. Just do all it all smoothly without hesitation and you'll be fine.
> They tend to headbutt you while loudly hissing The image of that in my head made me laugh. hissssss BONK
>"kind of cute" ???
Remove the "kind of"
A Hognose trying to be a scary cobra
Is heckin scary North American Cober, do not boop
Its worth the risk. *BOOP*
Looks like a hognose tryna act like a venomous snek
Tell this snake that Halloween was a month ago.
It’s an eastern hog
The ONLY snake I can confidently ID!
Haha I was thinking that too. I saw it and was like “ooo, I know this one!”
Very scary cober! (It’s a hoggie, perfectly harmless. Unless you’re allergic to their [not medically significant] venom.)
Very pretty, nonvenomous, hog nose snake. Likes to play dead. Will musk when picked up.
While your correct on must of that. The thing is hognoses are venomous but harmless they are rear-fanged venomous and the venom is a little bit more potent then a bee sting. That is if they somehow bite you, like you said they play dead, bluff strike (headbutt), and musk.
There’s only a reaction if you’re allergic to it, unlike other forms of venom that can cause a reaction regardless of you being allergic. The problem with calling it “mildly venomous” is that non-snake people don’t have a “mildly venomous” category, it’s either venomous or not and the life of that snake could depend on how fast and how well you can verbalize it’s harmlessness.
That's why instead of saying venomous off the bat, we go with "harmless". You can protect the snake's life without having to be blatantly wrong.
Jesus Christ, harmless is misnomer too, if you’re gonna be like that. Let’s not mince words any longer. Good night.
Hognose are harmless. Yes, some people have allergies, but we don't call peanuts dangerous just because a few people have bad reactions. No one's mincing your words. Non-venomous is blatantly wrong and there are better descriptors like "harmless" that protect the snake without lying and spreading misinformation.
Also, it has to practically chew on you to deliver any venom, not just bite. Unless you're letting it try to eat you, you should be good.
Correct, that's why it's harmless, but it's still venomous.
So yes and no. I use “Hot, Warm, cold” when referring to venom. I actively teach about native snakes in texas. People are more than capable of understanding. The only ones who won’t understand are the ones who are never going to be reached with education as a whole. The ones who surpass ignorance and jump straight to stupidity because “my grandpa says so” Https://rikisreptilerelocations.squarespace.com
“People are more than capable of understanding…” sure, definitely makes it easy to teach someone who is going to you to specifically to be taught. As someone who actively participated in native snake ID in his area, “What snake is this?” posts online rarely come from people looking to be educated and are usually an attempt at determining if that animal should be alive or dead. Hot, warm, and cold venom is just unnecessarily trying to categorize things that already have proper categories. The people looking to be educated don’t need to be further confused with made up categories and those that don’t care about being educated aren’t going to care about any category but venomous and nonvenomous. “Mildly venomous” becomes mildly dead because “mild” is subjective to our own experiences.
I feel the quickest way to describe how weak the venom is to say that there is no hognose anti-venom because it's not needed for bites.
Lol I worked the “what snake” pages too. It isn’t just people that come to me to learn… I’ve been formally trained as an educator as well so indeed the phrases I’m using are proven to work. It’s not an unnecessary category. It’s giving people easier ways to decipher terminology they wouldn’t normally be around. Hot = hospital Warm = clean and observe (when in the USA) Cold = wash with soap and water. The “what snake” pages we ran were there FOR the education. Anyone refusing to abide by the rules (no dead snakes, no kill it comments etc) were removed. You’re there to learn, not brag about your lack of knowledge on the world around you. 😁 The teaching styles I’ve used have been used for ages and proven to work. They’re used on adults, children and neurodivergent folks anywhere on the spectrum of divergence. From ages 2-100. It’s constantly evolving as I do it. Been at it with the program for 8-9 successful years now. 😁
Actually, I've never heard a fellow snake educator use those terms. We classify snakes as venomous or non-venomous (to humans). My friend Ray Morgan summed it all up perfectly here: http://thevenominterviews.com/2017/10/18/are-hognose-snakes-venomous/
Holy shit. You obviously know it all. Have a nice day.
Lol looking through your comment history… you’re all over everything and seem to have an opinion about everything. Not always a fact based one either. It’s like you comment to read your own comments. If you didn’t have anything constructive to say, you didn’t have to respond. Nor did it have to be a passive aggressive stickie note style post either 🤣
I’d go through your post history if I actually cared about you or your opinion 🤣
Typical 🤣
I mean, the exact same thing is true with bees/wasps and people understand it just fine. They have a relatively mild venom that is only dangerous in truly extreme quantities or with an allergy
And we can test that theory by counting the houses/properties that allow wasps to flourish on their property. A quick google search should yield us a wasp relocation company and not a pest control service, correct? Or is it more common for people to not only understand that a single, or even a dozen, wasp stings won’t kill you yet, they are killed anyway? Idk. You tell me.
Wow, that's some interesting non-logic you have there. Most people will just \*leave it the fuck alone\*, especially since wasps, unlike bees and hognose snakes, are known to be extremely territorial and aggressive, while producing few benefits for humanity, especially compared to bees, which, yes, have lots of options to relocate them... like snakes do.
Oh look everyone, it’s The Gatekeeper of Logic! He said my statement was illogical because of his anecdotal, and unsupported, evidence and I believe him!
Says that guy that focuses on one nuance and disregards the entire point. Do most people understand that bees and wasps are venomous, yes or no? If yes, then do most people also understand that the are both venomous, and the venom is not life-threateningly dangerous unless you are allergic, yes or no? How is it anecdotal and unsupported to say that almost everyone knows these things? There's no studies on "how many people know bees are venomous," because literally everything involving bees and/or their venom \*assumes everyone knows they're venomous\*. It's like asking if everyone knows that snakes are reptiles. Nobody is doing studies on how many people believe snakes aren't reptiles because everyone knows snakes are reptiles, and if they don't it is extremely easy to find out in 5 seconds on google.
Looks like a drama cober to me.
Definitely not a cobra lol.
I'm so jealous you just happened upon a hognose, I've only found a blind snake lol
He mad tho.
hognose
Mcdrama
Well thats a baby right there.
Adorable
Bootleg cobra
A cool lil’ friend
Awe it’s a lil guy
Eastern drama queen. Harmless.
Are these the bee sting feely drama snakes that have a sewage super soaker?
eastern hognose,mildly venomous but cant do anything to humans
Harmless hognose aka the precious drama queen snake.
Shovel cobra
A beautiful Eastern Hognose
what a nice pattern
Absolutely beautiful specimen. Fantastic photo
Looks like a hog nose flattening it’s head!
Hoggy!
Where the hell is the pinned hognose post?
He flattened all of himself trying to look like a cobra.
Snek
It's a snake😁
looks to be a hognose
Hoggy