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My olefactory odyssey began when I received a question from Johnny Walker a few weeks back. A consulting forester, Johnny wrote to inquire, “do copperhead snakes smell like cucumbers? This is an accepted fact in southwest Virginia. It is my understanding that the copperhead has no distinct odor. However, the great northern watersnake supposedly emits a musky scent that could resemble the odor of cucumbers. From a distance the coloration is similar. Could the copperheads reported (having a smell) by a lot of people actually be great northern watersnakes?”

I had to look into this. To find out about snake life in Virginia, as far as I'm concerned, there's only one place to start: Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Any swamp is good, but a dismal swamp is better; and a great dismal swam — well, need I say more? At 82,000-plus acres, Great Dismal is home to some 80 species of reptiles and amphibians, including both the copperhead and great northern watersnake.

The biologist I visited with had just completed a week-long dragline survey on the refuge. Dragline surveys require two people, one on each end of a rope or chain, and they pull it along and through all manner of brush, undergrowth, and gooey ground, flushing birds in the process so they can record the species. The biologist confirmed one very important fact: the Copperhead snake does emit a strong, distinctive odor. He came across many individual copperheads during the survey, all of which gave off the same unmistakeable aroma. The smell carries some distance, he said, “and you can always tell when there's one in the immediate area.” I think it's very nice of the copperhead — a venomous snake reaching 48 to 53 inches —to send out such a clear sign of its whereabouts.

OK. But does the smell resemble cucumbers? On this the biologist was unclear. “It's a sweet kind of smell,” he said. “It's not what I would call a good odor. But I don't think it's like cucumbers.” This is just like a biologist — they can brilliantly recite facts all day long, but give them a subjective or aesthetic question and they're lost.

As far as the smell of a copperhead being mistaken for that of a great northern watersnake — I think that question can be answered on the basis of habitat. In Virginia, copperheads are found most everywhere, from the landward side of seacoasts, around streams and wet areas, all the way upwards into the forested mountains. The northern watersnake, as its name suggests, is much more of a specialist, living only near water — streams, wetlands, lakes. Given the much broader distribution of the copperhead, I would have to believe that this is the stinking snake.

	Caught any interesting whiffs de critter lately? Click here join the discussion on animals and plants with distinctive smells.

What's interesting is that two field guides to snakes of the region — one for Virginia, the other for North Carolina — make no reference to the copperhead giving off any scent whatsoever. Never one to let a sleeping snake lie, I had to call one more biologist, a friend who works on the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee. This turned out to be a mistake. I received new information that makes this whole smelly snake situation even more confusing.

My friend has logged thousands of hours in the forests and waterways of eastern Tennessee. In her experience, copperheads give off no particular odor. But she said the water moccasin, another venomous snake — and one closely related to the copperhead — gives off what she described as “a musky” smell.

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