IDENTIFICATION
Micrurus tener tener could be referred to as a "candy stick snake" due to the brightly colored red, yellow and black bands that completely encircle its entire body. In this and the other forms of the Coral Snake that are found in the United States the red and yellow bands always touch each other. In Texas there are several harmless snakes that mimic the Texas Coral Snake's appearance. These harmless mimics include the Scarlet Snake and several of the Milk Snakes. However, in these harmless mimics, the red and yellow colors do not touch. The Texas Coral Snake has a very slender body and it's small black head has a somewhat blunt snout. The scales are smooth and the anal plate is divided. There are 15 rows of dorsal scales along the entire length of the body. The scales on the underside of the tail are arranged in a double row.
SIZE
Adults measure 20 to 30 inches. The record size for the Texas Coral Snake is 47¾ inches.
RANGE
This species ranges from northern Mexico across the southeastern half of Texas and into parts of Louisiana. It also occurs in the extreme southeastern corner of Oklahoma and extreme southwestern Arkansas.
DISTRIBUTION IN TEXAS
This species has been recorded from the following Texas counties: Anderson, Angelina, Aransas, Atascosa, Austin, Bandera, Bastrop, Bee, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Bosque, Brazoria, Brazos, Brooks, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Calhoun, Cameron, Chambers, Colorado, Comal, Crockett, Dallas, DeWitt, Dimmit, Duval, Edwards, Ellis, Fort Bend, Freestone, Frio, Galveston, Gillespie, Goliad, Gonzales, Grimes, Guadalupe, Hardin, Harris, Harrison, Hays, Henderson, Hildago, Hood, Houston, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Karnes, Kendall, Kenedy, Kerr, Kinney, Kleberg, Lamar, LaSalle, Lavaca, Lee, Leon, Liberty, Limestone, Live Oak, Llano, Mason, Matagorda, Maverick, Medina, McLennan, McMullen, Menard, Milam, Montgomery, Morris, Nacogdoches, Newton, Nueces, Orange, Palo Pinto, Panola, Pecos, Polk, Real, Reeves, Refugio, Robertson, San Jacinto, San Patricio, Somervell, Starr, Sutton, Tarrant, Terrell, Tom Green, Travis, Tyler, Uvalde, Victoria, Walker, Waller, Wharton, Willacy, Williamson, Wilson, and Zavala.
HABITAT
The Texas Coral Snake inhabits a variety of habitats across its range including lowland areas, rocky hillsides, wooded canyons, cedar brakes, subtropical forests. In the extreme western part of its range it is likely to occupy stands of live oak that are in or near moist canyons. It also occurs with some frequency in urban areas showing up in lawns, flower beds, and gardens. Whatever the habitat niche it occurs in, it prefers soft earth containing organic litter such as decaying leaves and wood matter.
FOOD
This species feeds on other smaller snakes, both harmless and venomous. They also eat lizards, especially small skinks. They are known to be cannibalistic, occasionally feeding on other Coral Snakes. In south Texas a large Texas Coral Snake was observed feeding on a large road-killed Mexican Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum annulata) late at night.
BEHAVIOR
Micrurus tener tener is a largely nocturnal species but occasionally may be seen out during the early morning hours, especially following a rain. This snake does not coil and strike like rattlesnakes and other pit vipers. Instead, if molested or alarmed it will normally swing the forward portion of its body from side to side until it is able to to grab hold and begin chewing in order to embed its short stationary fangs.
REPRODUCTION
Unlike most snakes that normally only breed in the spring, the Texas Coral Snake may breed anytime during the year, but the female does not lay eggs until June or July. A clutch of 2 to 12 eggs measuring about 1½ inches in length are laid in loose soil or in a rotten log. When the young hatch about two months later, they measure between 6½ and 9 inches in length.
REMARKS
Despite the inoffensive appearance of this colorful snake, you should be aware that like most snakes both venomous and harmless, it will bite if stepped on or handled and its venom is extremely potent. Most bites from this species occur when the snake is either stepped on, handled or otherwise touched. Most bites to humans occur on the fingers and toes. Although bites from this species are not common, if a person is bitten by a Texas Coral Snake, it is imperative that he or she receive immediate medical attention due to the snake's highly lethal neurotoxic venom.
F.E. Russell (1980) found 17 deaths among 82 recorded accounts of Coral Snake envenomation in the United States but found no records of human deaths after the introduction of Wyeth Coral Snake Antivenin in 1967. On June 13, 2006 The Bonita Daily News in Bonita, Florida reported that a 29 year-old Bonita man had died after being bitten by a Harlequin (Eastern) Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius fulivus) in what appears to be the first human death from a Coral Snake bite in the United States in forty years. In Texas, human deaths from bites of the Texas Coral Snake have been extremely rare. Two such deaths were recorded back in 1883. Since that time there has only been one additional documented death from a Coral Snake bite in Texas (J. E. Werler and J. R. Dixon, 2000).
LITERATURE CITED
Brown, Bryce C. 1950. An Annotated Check List of the Reptiles and Amphibians of Texas. Baylor University Press, Waco.
Campbell, L. A. and Lamar, W. W. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Conant, R. and J.T. Collins. 1991. Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern/Central North America, 3rd revised edition. Houghton Mifflin, Co., Boston.
Dixon, James R. 2000. Amphibians and Reptiles of Texas, 2nd edition. Texas A & M Press, College Station.
Spinner, Kate. 2006. The Bonita Daily News, Tues., June 13, 2006 edition. Bonita, Fl.
Werler, John E., and James R. Dixon. 2000. Texas Snakes, Identification, Distribution and Natural History. University of Texas Press, Austin.
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