 There
are three banded, red, yellow, and black snakes in Florida. Two of them
mimic the one that is dangerous in the hope they will be left alone
by predators.
While the colors may be the same, the pattern
is not. Think of a traffic light. If the warning colors-red
(stop) and yellow (caution) touch, it is the venomous coral. The
alternate band on the coral is yellow, assuring contact between the
red and yellow bands. The alternate band on the mimics is black,
preventing contact between the warning colors. The nose of the
coral snake is always black; it is always red on the mimic snakes.
The bands completely encircle the body of both
the coral snake and the scarlet kingsnake (Lampropeltis triangulum
elapsoides). The bands of the other mimic, the scarlet snake
(Cemophora coccinea), do not. Its belly is the
same color as the light colored bands, a cream color more than a bright
yellow.
The coral snake, despite it's particularly
toxic venom, which gives it the potential for serious human interaction,
seldom bites people. Unless a coral is stepped on, sat
upon, or grasped, it is not likely to bite. It will, when
it does bite, probably hang on and "chew." However,
all it takes to cause serious medical problems is one drop of venom,
which can be delivered quickly.
The coral snake is fairly common in a lot of
areas in the state, but is seldom encountered by people. They
are most active at night or during rainy days.
These snakes are thought, by some people, to
lack fangs. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are
in the same family (Elapidae), as are the cobras, mambas, and all of
Australia's venomous snakes. While I have heard people say coral
snakes do not have fangs, I have never heard that about cobras or taipans.
Coral snakes have short, fixed fangs, well forward in the mouth.
The coral snake is the only venomous snake in Florida that is not a
pit viper. Pit vipers have a heat-sensitive hole in the face,
between the eye and the nose, that is their most effective sense organ.
To illustrate how a coral snake will abide
some human contact before biting, allow me to relate a couple of true
stories. An 11 year-old boy in rural Palm Beach County caught
what he knew to be a scarlet kingsnake. A few days later, he was
showing it to some friends in his front yard. The snake was draped
around the boy's neck for over a half hour when, tiring of being played
with, bit the boy in the shoulder. It injected the boy with coral
snake venom, thereby ruining his identification of the snake and negating
the old wive's tale of the necessity to bite "between the fingers."
The boy survived that bite.
Driving home from a talk on snakes one
evening, I had a large coral snake (over a meter) in a cage in the cab
of my truck. Feeling something move against my leg, I turned on
the cab lights to see this huge coral snake trying to hide under my
right thigh. It's amazing how quickly one can go from 55
to 0 with no part of one's body on the seat. The snake was touching
me, not the other way around, so there was no real danger.
The coral snake attains a greater length than
most people realize, maximum being 51 inches. Their diet is strictly
reptiles, and they do not need, because they are primarily subterranean,
a lot of cover, allowing them to live in subdivisions right under peoples'
noses. They may be seen throughout the state.
The coral's venom is primarily neuro-toxic,
attacking the central nervous system. Symptoms of the bite may
include a sore throat and ptosis, which is the inability to keep the
eyes open. If and when death occurs, it will come from respiratory
failure, as the nerves that control the lungs fail. There have
been a few cases of coral snake bite where there was a delay of several
hours between the bite and the onset of the first symptoms. If
you transport a victim to the hospital, it would be a good idea if he
were admitted for observation, even if there are no outward signs of
envenomation.
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