Florida Snakes
The ecosystems of Florida include a huge variety of reptile species from alligators and turtles to snakes and lizards. Florida snakes are surely many: there are actually forty four species living in incredibly varied habitats, from salt marshes to fresh water mars and dry uplands or coastal mangroves and residential areas. Six Florida snakes require attention in particular due to their potent venom, and they are coexisting with the non-venomous varieties, venturing in urban settings too. The best way to stay out of trouble is to care enough to learn about their morphology and thus become able to distinguish among these Florida snakes. A relaxed attitude of avoidance is the wisest thing a human being could show in relation to snakes.
The poisonous Florida snakes count corals and pit vipers, they can be identified by certain features that make them stand apart. The cottonmouth, the rattlesnake and the copperhead are pit vipers, they all have vertical eye pupils, a v-shaped head and some facial pits one between eyes and nostrils and the others on each side of the head. These Florida snakes are haemotoxic as their venom attacks the red blood cells, destroying the wall of the blood vessel and causing uncontrolled hemorrhage. The venom of coral snakes is neurotoxic, meaning that it affects the function of the nerves and induces paralysis.
Rattlesnakes are the Florida snakes responsible for the majority of snakebites reported in the United States in a year. As their venom is very rapidly spreading in the body system, without immediate antivenin administration, the victim will die within less than thirty minutes. A major difference in the group of Florida snakes is made by copperheads, which have a weaker venom that doesn’t always require the use of antidotes. These gentler Florida snakes have less potent toxins and thus do not cause the same amount of harm as the rest of the pit vipers.
Even if poisonous snakes are the first to attract attention by the risk they pose, the most widespread of Florida snakes is the black racer, a non-venomous variety that uses only its very sharp fangs to put down its prey. Although the main tendency of home owners is to remove snakes from their properties, specialists insist on the fact that in the absence of snakes, rodents would breed out of control pestering us even more. Therefore, unless there are any alarm bells ringing about snakes nesting in large numbers in people’s gardens, there is no reason to interfere with the life of these creatures.
