the online meeting place for all who love our amphibians and reptiles
Home Page Live Forums Archived Forums Site Search Identify Record Donate Projects Links
Forum Home Forum Home > General > UK Reptiles and Amphibians
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Snake swimming in the sea - is this normal?
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Snake swimming in the sea - is this normal?

 Post Reply Post Reply Page  12>
Author
Message Reverse Sort Order
jimmy62alan View Drop Down
Member
Member
Avatar

Joined: 04 Sep 2012
Location: Sheffield S25
Status: Offline
Points: 13
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jimmy62alan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Snake swimming in the sea - is this normal?
    Posted: 06 Apr 2013 at 1:47pm
Most snakes love water, either for hunting fish or just to hydrate and cool down. Before a snake is due to shed its skin it will soak in water or go swimming. We bath all our snakes in our bath and they love it the Boa's, Pythons, Corn Snakes, Cali-Kings and our Gray Rat Snakes. In general all snakes will go to water some are surface swimmers and some are divers like our Pythons, our they like  the bath as deep as possible, it is awsome seeing them swimming and diving down to the bottom lol. I've only seen Grassie's in the wild swimming, but seeing any snake is still realy good seeing them be it in our bath or a snake in a lake. All snakes look good either on land or in water lo.
ALAN
Sheffield S25
Back to Top
fatboy View Drop Down
New Member
New Member


Joined: 09 Aug 2012
Status: Offline
Points: 1
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fatboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Aug 2012 at 9:07pm
we where at Scratby (just down the road from your sighting) on the 24th July and saw a snake swimming in the sea - as did loads of people.

I have a photo - but can't upload in this postCry

Anyone know how I can upload from my PC?


Back to Top
AGILIS View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1689
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AGILIS Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2012 at 6:12am
Also there could be sea snakes arriving here from warmer parts of the world as the climate changes but more lik a nat .keith.
   LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID
Back to Top
herpetologic2 View Drop Down
Forum Coordinator
Forum Coordinator
Avatar

Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1511
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote herpetologic2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jul 2012 at 7:55pm
It could have been either snake species as I believe that the area has lots of both. It would be good to have it recorded and you can either here or on the record pool www.arguk.org/recording 

We have an eel project in Hampshire eel sightings are sorted by where the animal is spotted animals hogging the river bottom are usually potential eel sightings while swimming at the surface is often a grass snake. 

Adders are not adverse to salt water and there are several sightings in the river crouch, river Blackwater which leads me to conclude that they do cross the sea to islands. Rat island in the Stroud near mersea have grass snakes and probably come from the seawall. 

I would love to radio track these snakes to see whether they regularly take these seawater trips et. 

Back to Top
johnsquires View Drop Down
New Member
New Member


Joined: 25 Jul 2012
Status: Offline
Points: 4
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote johnsquires Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jul 2012 at 9:16am
Thanks for your replies folks. Absolutely nobody believes me about this when I tell it to them, they all say it was an eel, but it certainly looked like a snake to me, flat head, scales etc. Judging by pictures on Google I'd say it was a grass snake but I couldn't really say for sure. I was at Winterton-on-Sea where there are a lot of dunes. It's not near a river, so definitely salt water. There are Terns nesting on the beach, would snakes be attracted to the beach to eat the eggs? Oh, and to confirm, it was definitely swimming on the surface of the water, head out of water, body half submerged, making the typical snake-like S patterns. I wish I'd had my camera!
Back to Top
AGILIS View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1689
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AGILIS Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jul 2012 at 5:10pm
I have seen adders on the beach at Studland in the past within a few wiggles from the sea keith
   LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID
Back to Top
GemmaJF View Drop Down
Admin Group
Admin Group
Avatar

Joined: 25 Jan 2003
Location: Essex
Status: Offline
Points: 4359
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jul 2012 at 9:25am
There are references in the literature of adder being caught in fishing nets well out to sea. We also have had several accounts on the forum of adders swimming in the sea. There has been speculation locally regarding adders swimming in the Blackwater estuary to reach Osea Island.

Adder will certainly do it, why they do it is a bigger question to me, so I can't shed any light on that, perhaps they just like it on hot sunny days! This might actually have something in it as most of the sightings reported seem to occur on the hottest days and it may be simply a thermoregulation behaviour.

Certainly though something I have never observed first hand so thanks for reporting your experience John.
Back to Top
Mark_b View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 155
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark_b Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jul 2012 at 9:10am
Eels don't tend to swim on the surface do they?
Back to Top
sussexecology View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 30 Sep 2010
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 411
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sussexecology Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jul 2012 at 4:47pm

interesting sighting for sure.

Funnily enough, i was talking to somebody only yesterday about adders being able to swim. This is not well documentated in literature that adders can swim but must admit i have never seen it for myself, but i have come across 2 or 3 people who have witnessed them swimming. These were all in freshwater habitats though.

Do you recall seeing a distinctive pattern at all on the snake, such as a zig-zag pattern along it's body? This would be adder if so. Grass snakes have a yellow mark on their head, but not sure if you would have been able to see this or not ?? It is very distinctive though

Keith is right though that eels can be easily mistaken for grass snakes.

Regards
SE Reptile Ecologist




Edited by sussexecology - 26 Jul 2012 at 4:48pm
Back to Top
AGILIS View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1689
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AGILIS Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jul 2012 at 1:05pm
Dont forget there are eels swimming around the coast that could be mistaken for snakes??
   LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  12>
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 11.06
Copyright ©2001-2016 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.594 seconds.