Eastern Hog-nosed Snake
Heterodon platirhinos • Order: Squamata, Suborder: Serpentes, Family: Dipsadidae, Subfamily: Dipsadinae, Genus: Heterodon, Species: Heterodon platirhinos
Found primarily in the eastern half of the United States, extending from southern New Hampshire and central Florida west to eastern Texas and Minnesota.
Look up Eastern Hog-nosed Snake in the Snake Encyclopedia →Family
Order: Squamata, Suborder: Serpentes, Family: Dipsadidae, Subfamily: Dipsadinae, Genus: Heterodon, Species: Heterodon platirhinos
Conservation
Listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, though local populations face declines due to habitat fragmentation, intentional killing, and road mortality.
Physical Description
Exhibits a stout body with a distinctively upturned snout adapted for digging. Coloration is highly variable, featuring gray, tan, yellowish, or reddish backgrounds with large darker blotches down the back and alternating spots along the sides. Scales are keeled.
Size & Dimensions
Typical adult size ranges from 51 to 115 cm (20 to 45 inches), with females generally growing larger than males. This specimen appears to be a medium-sized adult or a well-grown juvenile.
Habitat
Prefers open woodlands, sandy soils, agricultural fields, coastal areas, and brushlands where it utilizes loose soil for burrowing.
Diet & Feeding
Specialized feeder with a primary diet consisting of amphibians, especially toads. It uses specialized enlarged rear teeth to deflate toads that inflate themselves as a defense mechanism.
Reproduction
Oviparous species that mates in spring and typically lays clutches of 10 to 40 eggs in underground nests excavated in sandy soil during June or July.
Look-alikes
Frequently confused with various vipers such as rattlesnakes and copperheads due to its defensive behavior of flattening its neck and hissing, but easily distinguished by its upturned snout and lack of heat-sensing pits.
Conservation Status
Listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, though local populations face declines due to habitat fragmentation, intentional killing, and road mortality.
Cultural Significance
Famous for its dramatic theatrical defensive displays, including flattening its neck, hissing loudly, striking with a closed mouth, and finally rolling over onto its back to play dead.
Notable Features
Possesses a strongly upturned rostral scale on the tip of the snout, which serves as a plow for digging in sandy substrates and burrowing to find prey or hibernate.