Eastern Hognose Snake
Heterodon platirhinos • Order: Squamata, Suborder: Serpentes, Family: Colubridae, Subfamily: Dipsadinae, Genus: Heterodon, Species: H. platirhinos
Eastern and central North America, ranging from southern Ontario, Canada, south through the eastern United States to Florida, and west to Minnesota, Kansas, and Texas.
Look up Eastern Hognose Snake in the Snake Encyclopedia →Family
Order: Squamata, Suborder: Serpentes, Family: Colubridae, Subfamily: Dipsadinae, Genus: Heterodon, Species: H. platirhinos
Conservation
IUCN Red List status: Least Concern. However, local populations face decline due to habitat fragmentation, vehicle mortality, and persecution due to confusion with venomous species.
Physical Description
Robust body with strongly keeled dorsal scales and a characteristic upturned snout ('hog nose'). Variable coloration ranging from black/grey to yellow, orange, brown, or red, often with darker blotches; this specimen exhibits a dark greyish-brown melanistic or uniform pattern. Displaying a flattened neck (hooding).
Size & Dimensions
This specimen appears to be an adult around 24-30 inches (60-75 cm). Typical adult range is 20-35 inches (50-90 cm), with maximum recorded length around 45 inches (115 cm).
Habitat
Prefers areas with loose, sandy soils suitable for burrowing, such as open woodlands, pine forests, coastal dunes, field borders, and old fields from sea level up to around 2,500 feet.
Diet & Feeding
Specialized toad eater (toad specialist), but also consumes frogs, salamanders, and occasionally small rodents. Uses enlarged rear teeth to puncture inflated toads to make them easier to swallow.
Reproduction
Oviparous. Females lay clutches of 8 to 40 eggs (average 15-25) in sandy soil or under logs in early summer, which hatch in late summer or early fall after 60 days.
Look-alikes
Often mistaken for venomous species like the Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) or Pigmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius), as well as Cobras when hooding. Distinguished by its sharply upturned nose, keeled scales, and characteristic neck-flattening behavior.
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List status: Least Concern. However, local populations face decline due to habitat fragmentation, vehicle mortality, and persecution due to confusion with venomous species.
Cultural Significance
Famous in herpetology for its dramatic defensive theatricality ('puff adder' or 'blow viper' in local folklore), playing an important ecological role in controlling toad populations.
Notable Features
Upturned rostral scale used for digging in sandy soil, rear fangs adapted for deflation/ingestion of toads, ability to expand the neck ribs into a hood, and sophisticated death-feigning (thanatosis) display.