Meet the Animal Park's Western Hognose Snake
Heterodon nasicus
Mr. Hiss
About Western Hognose Snakes
NATIVE RANGE
Western hognose snakes can be found from south-central Canada, south to southeast Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, southward into Mexico. They prefer scrubby, flat prairie areas with loose, sandy soil suitable for burrowing.DIET
The hognose snake uses its upturned snout (a modified scale at the tip of its nose) to burrow through the earth in search of toads, its principal food. Other foods include frogs, lizards, mice, birds, snakes, and reptile eggsBEHAVIOR
Western hognose snakes are primarily diurnal or crepuscular. Not dangerous to man, these snakes use a mildly toxic saliva to subdue their preferred prey of poison toads. (The hognose is one of the few species able to tolerate the toads’ poison, as their saliva helps break down the toxins.) Their venom flows down enlarged rear teeth. Primarily solitary, they only communicate with one another during breeding season. As many as 39 eggs are laid in the early summer, hatching in as little as 50 days.FASCINATING FACTS
- The hognose is more likely to posture, flee, or play dead than to bite.
- The “arctic” gene modifies the snake’s pattern and color. It can vary in expression, but in general, arctics tend to have a lighter and less saturated color, with “eyebrow” markings, flaky background color, black borders on patterning, and mottled heads.
- Heterodon translates from Latin as “different tooth,” referring to the unusual positioning of these snakes’ fangs at the rear of their mouths. Nasicus derives from the Latin for “nose,” referring to the size and unusual shape of the snake’s snout.
