Snakes of West Virginia

Snakes Do A Lot More Than Scare People! June 16, 2010 Reporter: Patrick McMurtry Videographer: Brad Rice

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This is a milk snake. Here is a corn snake. This is a smooth green snake, This is a garter snake, you see these all over, these are a little more agitated.

Jim Fregonara, a biologist with The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, knows his snakes and he spends a lot of time looking out for the wriggly guys. That's because a lot of people have serious misconceptions about snakes and the important role they play in the world.
Take the black rat snake, for instance.

"If you're a farmer and you have a black rat snake around your property, I'd recommend you leave it there because they can save a farmer thousands of dollars by eating the mice and rats that eat the farmer's crops. Totally harmless, all snakes are predators and won't eat any of your garden crops or anything like that." says Fregonara.

And, it turns out, snakes are also a favorite food themselves. Jim says a lot of animals like to snack on snakes.

"A lot of animals like to eat snakes, most people don't think that, they play an important part in the food web, hawks and owls. How old is this one? He's probably about 10 years old and when they're born they're only about the size of a pencil and a lot of people get them confused with a copperhead." says Fregonara.

This guy here isn't much bigger than a pencil and it's full grown. Others get much bigger and some, like the black king snake, actually eat other snakes. It turns out West Virginia has a variety of species of snakes.

"In West Virginia, we have 20 different kinds, if you go down south, in the southern part of the country, there are more, if you go north, you have fewer just because they're reptiles and they are cold blooded." says Fregonara.

And just about anywhere you go in the state, you'll be in snake country, but you'll probably never see these reclusive members of the animal kingdom.

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