By: Alexandra Pearcy
A while back, I got a text message from a friend with a picture of a snake saying, “Do you know what it is?” After one glance at the image, I text back “Red and yellow kill a fellow!!! Do not touch that snake!!! Coral snake dude! DO NOT TOUCH!!!”
The snake that my friend saw in her driveway was an eastern coral snake (Micrurus fulvius). Here in Texas, we have Micrurus tener, the Texas coral snake. They have the second most potent venom of any snake, right behind the black mamba. Coral snakes have red, yellow, and black bands. They have a black head and tail tip making it hard to determine which end is the front of the snake.
Texas coral snakes are usually between 20 to 30 inches in length. They live in diverse environments including desert shrublands, forests, and tropical savannahs. Coral snakes are solitary, usually only seen together when in breeding season (summer). They are shy and spend their time in leaf litter or in burrows underground; however, when coral snakes are cornered with no way out, they will strike.
Coral snakes have short, nonretractable fangs that inject a mostly neurotoxic venom that affects the respiratory and nervous system, causing muscle paralysis, which can take hours to set in. A coral snake will strike multiple times to deliver its venom.
Although all of this is terrifying to think about, this elusive snake accounts for less than 1% of venomous snakebites in the US according to Medscape and no deaths have been reported from coral snakes since the 1960s, thanks to antivenin.
Coral snakes have quite a few nonvenomous look-alikes that have the same tricolored pattern of red, black, and yellow. Scarlet king snakes are one of the most common mimics. That is why decades ago there was a saying created to distinguish these two species: red touches yellow kill a fellow; red touches black friend of jack.
Coral snakes are part of the cobra family, unlike the rest of the venomous snakes in the US which are pit vipers. As an environmental education teacher, I taught a class called Herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. In this course, I taught people how to “identify” a snake as venomous (these are not the only, nor best characteristics to use to identify venomous snakes because nonvenomous snakes can/do possess these characteristics).
Pit vipers, like rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and copperheads all have triangular-shaped heads. Prominent glands, where their venom sacs are, make the two points of the triangle opposite the nostril and (usually) heat-sensing pits.
Another trait that I would mention to my class is that pit vipers possess elliptical pupils, “cat eyes,” during the daytime. Venomous snakes are also typically thicker than nonvenomous snakes.
Unfortunately, coral snakes possess none of these characteristics. Coral snake’s venom glands are elongated giving them no distinctive head and round pupils during all times of day, not just in low light like pit vipers.
Overall, coral snakes are the odd man out when it comes to venomous snakes in Texas. This always concerns me when I am talking to friends that aren’t the most knowledgeable about serpents. When you are worried about tricolored snakes here in Texas remember: red touches yellow kill a fell, red touches black friend of Jack.
Also note, that this rhyme is not a stand-alone or end-all rule outside of Texas. Snake identification should not just be a one-rule identification. One should know multiple techniques to identify a species, and when in doubt, even just a smidge, DO NOT TOUCH.
Photo by Jeff Boerger. Caption: Texas Coral Snake in Waco.
