Video: Cottonmouth and Copperhead Snake Battle Each Other
OutdoorHub Reporters 09.28.16
We’ve come across some really odd snake behavior lately, but this encounter shows behavior very rarely seen in the wild.
David Steen, a wildlife ecologist at Auburn University, said in a National Geographic article, “It’s unusual to see snakes fighting, but what makes this observation particularly exciting is that they are two different species – a cottonmouth and a copperhead.”
This interaction points to evidence that these two species of snakes actually mate in the wild. This behavior has occurred in captivity, but is rarely found in nature.
Two highly venomous snakes breeding to create a hybrid species – cottonhead, or coppermouth depending on how you look at it – sounds like a snake-haters nightmare. It makes for a really cool video, though!
