Plants, fungi, and wildlife

Eastern copperhead

Agkistrodon contortrix

The venomous snake you will actually meet in Dearborn County. Chestnut hourglasses on a copper body.

Timber rattlesnake

Crotalus horridus

Rare on these ridges now, still possible in rough Ohio River hills. Rattle, chevron bands, black tail.

Northern watersnake

Nerodia sipedon

The snake people kill at the creek, thinking it is a water moccasin. It is not. Cottonmouths are not established here.

Eastern ratsnake

Pantherophis alleghaniensis

Black climber. Eats rats and eggs. Harmless, often in barns and rafters.

Eastern box turtle

Terrapene carolina

High-domed woodland turtle. Leave it. Populations cannot take harvesting.

American toad

Anaxyrus americanus

Warty garden ally. One or two big warts in each dark spot. Eats slugs.

Spring peeper

Pseudacris crucifer

The first loud night of late winter. An X on the back. Tiny.

American bullfrog

Lithobates catesbeianus

The pond meat frog. No dorsolateral ridges down the back; a fold around the eardrum.