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Mud snake

Farancia abacura · Snakes · Reptiles

Mud snake (Farancia abacura): Non-venomous; adults 91-122 cm total length, females thicker-bodied, males longer-tailed. Shiny blue-gray to black back, often with a metallic sheen. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Farancia abacura
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Coastal Plain from southeastern Virginia to southern Florida, west to eastern Texas and north in the Mississippi Valley to southern Illinois. Not in Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Non-venomous; adults 91-122 cm total length, females thicker-bodied, males longer-tailed. [1][2]

Shiny blue-gray to black back, often with a metallic sheen. [1][2]

Sides with salmon, pink or red bars; belly checkered with alternating red and black bars. [1][2]

Flat head, slightly constricted neck and small inconspicuous eyes; smooth scales in 19 rows at midbody. [1][2]

Juveniles similar but with a needle-like tail that adults lack. [1][2]

Field knowledge

Where it lives

Marshes, swampy lake margins, river-edge wetlands, oxbows, beaver ponds, slow mud-bottomed streams, sloughs, floodplains, ditches and brackish tidal areas; burrows in soft soil and wet debris. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Semiaquatic and fossorial; prowls in the open at night, buried in mud much of the time on land. [1][2]

Eats sirens, amphiumas, other salamanders, frogs, tadpoles and fish. [1][2]

Active March-November in Texas; hibernates in the northern part of its range and is active year-round in the south. [1][2]

Lays 6-104 eggs (usually under 50), mostly July to early August. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Coastal Plain from southeastern Virginia to southern Florida, west to eastern Texas and north in the Mississippi Valley to southern Illinois. Not in Canada.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology