Two colorful Florida snakes look very similar; the king snake pictured above, is nonvenomous; the other, the coral snake, is deadly poisonous. They look very much alike. There is an old saying, ““Red on yella, kill a fella. Red on black, a friend of Jack.” In the picture above, all the red bands are adjacent to black bands so it is a nonpoisonous king snake.
The coral snake is as colorful but its yellow bands usually touch the red bands. And unlike the the king snake which has a red head, the coral snake usually has a black head and tip of the tail. Usually.
Nature, however doesn’t always play by human’s rules, and the differences can become blurred. While the distinctions mentioned above are usually right in Florida, it’s best just to leave them alone, for if you happen to be wrong, you could end up being dead wrong.
#kingsnake #coralsnake #deadwrong
Eskildoodle Photos and Feelings 