I found a cool snake

[Fishkeeper]

Plain-bellied water snake, I think. I was checking out a little-used hiking trail near a river, walked a short distance off the trail following a cricket frog, and turned around to find a snake behind me. It didn't seem to care about me too much, it hadn't even turned to face me fully, so I just sat where I was to get a good look at it. Wasn't sure at first if it was a water moccasin, but I know moccasins aren't aggressive, and I really didn't think it was going to race over the 4-5 foot gap between us to attack me.
(those stories people tell about being chased by moccasins are likely stories of other, nonvenomous water snakes instead. Some of them will lunge at someone as a bluff if they feel threatened, but moccasins are shy and would rather run.)
Only took me a minute to remember (and confirm via Google) that water moccasins have vertical, slit pupils, not goofy googly eyes like this guy, so I started trying to figure out if I wanted to grab it. I guess I got too close to it, though, because it kinda struck a few inches in my direction and then bolted into the water. Definitely wasn't trying to get me, it just bluff-bit at the air. Snakes don't generally want to strike at you, that involves getting closer to you and getting in range where you could hurt it.
Decent-sized snake. 3 feet or a few inches under, I think. I would have liked to pick it up, but oh well.

Look at this terrifying monster, with its googly eyes and its cheeks and its smiley face. So deadly. So scary.

 

[The Snark]

I would have liked to pick it up,

Why? But otherwise, nice posting, cute snake. Observe and learn, both ways.

Try and pick me up. I dare you.

 

[Fishkeeper]

I love snakes, and they're really nice to hold. They're heavy and solid and have nice textures. I don't know if you've ever held a ball python that's happy to just chill out in your hands, but it's great. Plus, the best way to take great photos of a snake, especially a species that might be trickier to identify, is to have it up close.
Plus, look at its scales. That looks like the kind of texture I really like to pet. I would have loved to hold and stroke it for a minute or two. Snakes aren't social (except a couple species) and don't get anything out of petting, not like mammals, but most of the calmer ones don't mind it as long as you stay away from their face. They tend to like the warmth of the average human, too. Sometimes you can put a snake you've found in your pocket and it'll just hang out in there. I wouldn't trap a snake that was actively trying to get away from me for long, just keep ahold of it long enough to photograph, but sometimes they don't mind.
A snake that size, if it's not venomous, can't do anything to you that's worse than what a rosebush could do if you stuck your hand in it. I'd never handle a medically significant venomous snake, not with anything shorter than a 10-foot snake hook.

 

[The Snark]

I love snakes, and they're really nice to hold. They're heavy and solid and have nice textures.

I'm not extending ridicule of you and I know the tactile sensations of touching a snake all too well. As in, 'I'm holding a royally pissed off rattler while wearing a glove so I can't tell precisely if it's getting loose and I'm surrounded by people and spooking horses that are my responsibility. Just great. Stupid move to the max. No choice but to pull out my knife and cut it's head off.' After that blunder I've always given a lot of thought before considering picking up a snake.
Close association with O Hannahs has brought about an unusual mindset: Barring stupid moves like aggressive motions towards it they are smart, and innately sense non hostility. They assume the watchful posture as seen in that photo, and will eventually go on about their business, one even sauntering off over the toe of my boot and between my legs. Live and let live both ways - mutual respect. This simply doesn't happen when the human has 'pick it up' mentality.

A snake that size, if it's not venomous, can't do anything to you that's worse than what a rosebush could do if you stuck your hand in it.

Always about the human. There is more to it, to in situ with an animal. What it can do to a human is a tiny fraction of what it does, what it is, and it's place in the environment and eco-system. Interaction with humans is usually aberrative behavior that is not found in an animal's normal life.

Pardon me for going off on a tangent. I'm just beyond fed up with the human attitude of an animal's value must be in accordance with what benefit humans may gain from it. Animals as toys. As show pieces. As presents. As objects to torment. As a way to make money. To show off one's superiority to other humans.

Steve Irwin started out keeping a zoo, turned his career into protecting animals from people, and died accidentally failing to extend respect and space to one of the animals he so loved.

 

[Fishkeeper]

You're not wrong that it's best to leave animals alone, but I happen to think that there are situations where you might not necessarily want to. I've moved snakes away from cats and busy walkways before, for example. I've also caught multiple different animal species because there were small children nearby, and I thought there might be some benefit in showing them whatever animal it was. Kids who have an appreciation for nature are a lot less likely to grow up into adults who kill every bug in their house, try to kill every snake they come across, and poison their immediate environment with half a dozen pesticides. Sometimes all it takes is that "hey, look at this cool bug!" moment to get a kid interested when they might not otherwise be. I've done that with two snakes; a small hognose, and a 12" rat snake. The hognose, I thought especially important to show to people, to adults as well as kids, because I know they get mistaken for venomous snakes a lot. Technically they are, but they have a difficult time getting venom into a human, their venom isn't terribly potent, and they're extremely unlikely to bite anyway. It flattened its neck in a threat posture for a minute or two while I had it in my hands, then settled down into more of an inquisitive position. They're a pretty laid-back snake. The rat snake moved fast while I had it in my hands, so I put it in my jacket pocket, where it settled down as I showed it to people. Both snakes were returned to exactly where I found them after less than 5 minutes of being shown around. Neither had musked, struck at me, or otherwise showed signs of extreme stress.

The most upset snake I've ever held was a rat snake hatchling that bit me. That one was crawling up our doorframe and fell into the doorframe when I opened the door, so I had to move it to where the door wouldn't close on it, and I had to handle it for long enough to put it into an escape-proof container until I could transport it out of our yard to where the cats that my mother insists on letting outside would be less likely to find and kill it.

With this snake, I was hoping to photograph its underbelly. I couldn't identify it on the spot (aside from "not venomous"), and wasn't sure how difficult it would be to ID later, so I thought a photo of its belly might be needed. I also thought that, if it was calm, I ought to see if anyone in the immediate area might want to see it to learn what a non-venomous water snake looks like. And yes, I'll admit, I wanted to pick it up just to pick it up and hold it. I like snakes. I don't like to handle animals that are frantic to escape, but, if you're gentle with them, some animals are fairly calm when handled. I've had toads sit calmly in my hand, not in a threat or hiding posture, not hopping wildly to escape, just sitting. You're right that human interaction is an anomaly for a lot of animals, and because of that, not all of them mind it as much as you'd expect.

I also agree that it's not good that an animal's value is often assessed entirely based on how useful it is to humans. I disagree that it's bad for an animal to be kept as a show piece, though. It can be, but isn't always. I have peppered roaches, as an example. I keep them because they're big, and I like them, and I like to show them to people. They're show pieces. Because I like them as show pieces, I have a small colony of them in a warm, safe place, with lots of food. I'm looking for more to improve their gene pool's diversity. When they get too crowded, I'll send some of them off to other people who'll keep them as show pieces. All things considered, they have a pretty good life. I used to keep (captive-bred) dart frogs- same idea. Heck, a lot of people on here keep tarantulas partly because they like to show them off. If an animal is ethically sourced and kept humanely, there's nothing wrong with it being kept as a show piece. Everyone on here keeping tarantulas for anything other than a conservation effort is keeping an animal for their own enjoyment, and that's not harmful.
It would be bad to assess tarantulas as their individual species only in terms of how much enjoyment they can bring to humans. It would be bad to say "I don't want this pet tarantula any more, I'm going to kill it because it's not useful to me any more". It is not bad to say "I am going to keep this responsibly obtained tarantula as a pet for personal enjoyment".

And I include the bit about snake bites because usually, when someone is confused about the idea of wanting to handle a snake, it's because they're thinking about how snakes bite.

Basically, I don't disagree with the idea of leaving things alone, but I disagree with the idea that any and all human interactions with wild animals are a bad thing. I don't know if that's the point you're making, but I know I've seen that point be made.

 

[mantisfan101]

The snake actually seemed terrifying until i saw that last photo.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Yeah, that's probably my favorite snake photo that I've seen in awhile. It's a shame I didn't get any shots of him with his tongue out, because that made it even better.
And the goofy look is a good way to tell that it's not a venomous species. Water moccasins look a decent bit like that, but have vertical, slit pupils that are considerably less goofy and more cool-looking. They also have a sort of orange-white-yellow (varies between individuals) streak running from their nose, through their eye, to the back of their head, and the head tends to be a bit less squishy.

 

[The Snark]

Basically, I don't disagree with the idea of leaving things alone, but I disagree with the idea that any and all human interactions with wild animals are a bad thing.

No, I don't, and I didn't mean to give that impression. But we need to go by the basic facts of reality as nicely put in the Men in Black movie: "The person is smart. People are dumb panicky dangerous animals."
There are many wonderful caring persons out there who should feel welcome being in close contact with animals. But we also have between 30% to 40% of the population of the US, and a whole lot elsewhere, who have graduated Dumb Dumb Cum Laude and are just begging to trash animals and screw things up for everybody. A guy at the snake farm about week ago wanting a picture of him nose to nose kissing a Kaouthai is a pretty typical example. Or me interceding in a parking lot where fools 1 through 7 or 8, beer equipped, were baiting a lost bear cub. Before animal control could arrive and help me restore sanity I ended up having to shoot the cub. I think it can be guessed where I would have preferred pointing the rifle.

 

[Teal]

Lovely find! Nerodia are neat snakes.

have vertical, slit pupils, not goofy googly eyes

The majority of snakes have vertical pupils, and whether they are slits (contracted) or more rounded (dilated) depends entirely on the light. Using this as a waybto identify venomous vs non-venomous is incorrect and potentially dangerous.

One way to distinguish Nerodia sp (water snake) from Agkistrodon piscivorus (cottonmouth/water moccasin) is to look at the head markings - typical Nerodia have black/dark vertical bars along the mouth, and typical A. piscivorus have a horizontal black/dark band across the eye. However, abberant and abnormal specimens exist in nature so one single aspect should never be the sole basis of identification.