Eastern coral snake

Identification

The eastern coral snake is a slender snake with smooth, shiny scales and broad red and black rings separated by narrow yellow rings, so the red rings touch yellow ones¹. The red rings usually carry black flecks, the rings run right round the body, and the tail has only black and yellow bands^1,2. The small head is not distinct from the neck: the blunt snout is black, followed by a broad yellow band behind the tiny, round-pupilled eyes¹.

Most adults are about 51–76 cm long, and the longest recorded was 120.7 cm¹. Females are longer than males, and the young look like small adults^1,2. Its scientific name, fulvius, means orange-yellow; it was apparently chosen after preserved specimens whose red rings had faded to yellowish orange³.

Distribution

This coral snake is found only in the United States³. It ranges from south-eastern North Carolina south through Florida and west into south-eastern Louisiana². In Florida it has been recorded in every county and on Key Largo¹.

Coral snakes west of the Mississippi River are now treated as a separate species, the Texas coral snake (Micrurus tener)^3,4. The eastern coral snake is extremely rare along the northern edge of its range in the Carolinas⁴.

Habitat

It lives in many habitats, from dry, well-drained pine flatwoods and scrub to low, wet hammocks and the edges of swamps¹. It favours sandy soils, including pine and scrub sandhills and dry oak woodland, where it can burrow^2,4. It spends much of its life underground or under logs, leaf litter and debris². It is sometimes found in suburban areas next to natural habitat^1,2.

Behaviour

This snake is secretive and seldom seen above ground, except in spring and autumn and after heavy rain floods the soil². It is mainly active by day but may switch to dawn, dusk or night activity in hot weather².

When approached it usually flees¹. It may also flatten the back of its body, hide its head under its coils and raise and wave its tail, which draws an attack away from the head¹. It is not aggressive, but it will readily bite if grabbed or pinned, and almost all bites happen when people handle or harass it¹.

Diet

The eastern coral snake feeds almost entirely on lizards and small snakes, which it kills with its venom¹. Its snake prey includes burrowing species such as worm snakes and crowned snakes, and it occasionally eats frogs². It hunts by crawling slowly and probing its head into leaf litter and burrows^1,2. It usually holds on to its prey after biting and chews to deliver venom².

Reproduction

This species lays eggs³. In Florida, females usually lay about 4–13 white, elongated, leathery eggs underground or in leaf litter, and they hatch in August and September¹. Incubation takes about 60–80 days, and hatchlings are 18–23 cm long².

Venom and medical significance

The eastern coral snake is highly venomous: the WHO lists it in Category 2 in the United States, for snakes that can cause death or disability but are less often involved in bites⁵. It has small, fixed front fangs, and although it may chew when it bites, it does not need to chew to inject venom¹. Its venom attacks the nerves and can cause tingling, double vision, drooping eyelids, difficulty swallowing, muscle weakness and paralysis of the breathing muscles, sometimes only after a delay of up to about 12–13 hours^6,7.

Bites are rare: US poison centres recorded 1,374 coral snake bites from 2006 to 2022, mostly in Florida and Texas, with no deaths⁹, and a 2009 report described the first documented US coral snake death in over 40 years, in a man who did not seek medical care⁸. North American Coral Snake Antivenin is the only coral snake antivenom approved in the United States; production stopped in 2003, causing a shortage, but has since resumed⁶. Anyone bitten should go to hospital immediately.

Conservation

The eastern coral snake is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, in an assessment made in 2007¹⁰. It is still of local conservation concern: it is listed as Endangered in North Carolina, Imperiled in South Carolina and of Highest Conservation Concern in Alabama⁴. Threats include the loss of pine and scrub habitat to development, road traffic and killing by people². A 2018 study predicted that a warming climate will make more habitat to the north suitable, though fragmented habitat may limit its spread⁴.

Similar species

Two harmless snakes in its range, the scarlet kingsnake (Lampropeltis elapsoides) and the scarlet snake (Cemophora coccinea), also have red, black and yellow or white rings, and in a study of 39 bitten people the most common cause of a bite was mistaking a coral snake for a scarlet kingsnake^1,7. In the eastern coral snake the red rings touch yellow rings and the snout is blunt and black; in both look-alikes the red rings touch only black and the snout is red and more pointed, and milksnakes also have red markings bordered by black^1,11,12.

The rhyme “red touches yellow, kills a fellow; red touches black, venom lack” sums up this difference, but it only works for coral snakes in the United States, and even in Florida unusual colour variants occasionally break it^1,11. Some coral snakes in Mexico, Central America and South America have red rings touching white or even black rings, so the rhyme must not be relied on there¹¹. These differences are not a safe basis for handling any snake. Keep your distance from every snake you cannot identify.

In captivity

The eastern coral snake is a dangerous venomous snake and is not suitable as a pet. Almost all bites happen when people deliberately handle or harass these snakes¹. It is listed as Endangered in North Carolina⁴, and South Carolina protects all of its native reptiles². If you see one, the Florida Museum advises simply leaving it alone¹.