Overview
Named for the white interior of its mouth which is shown as a defense mechanism, the cottonmouth is a heavy-bodied venomous pit viper snake found in the southeastern United States. The species is semi-aquatic and is usually found near or in water. The western cottonmouth is a subspecies that is found in the southern Mississippi River basin and west into Texas and Oklahoma. It is usually darker in color than the other subspecies.
Conant, R. (1975). A field guide to reptiles and amphibians of Eastern and central North America. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cottonmouth (agkistrodon piscivorus) - species profile. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=1197.
Johnson, T. R. (2000). Western cottonmouth. In The amphibians and reptiles of Missouri (pp. 337–340). Missouri Dept. of Conservation.
Powell, R., Conant, R., Collins, J. T., Conant, I. H., Johnson, T. R., Hooper, E. D., & Taggart, T. W. (2016). In Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and amphibians of Eastern and central North America (pp. 437–438). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.