From beautiful to freakish: Here are 4 of the most bizarre snakes found in Mississippi

World Snake Day is July 16, but at The Clarion-Ledger, we're having Snake Week. After all, sharks have their own week, so why not snakes? From July 15-19, The Clarion-Ledger will publish a snake-related story online each day. Some will be new and some will be reader favorites from our archives.

Just like snowflakes, no two animals in nature are exactly the same. The differences in some can be so subtle that most would never see them, but they're there.

In snakes, the differences are more obvious, especially if there are two of a given species side by side. Patterns will differ, skin can be lighter or darker among individuals and in some cases, colors can be completely different within the same species.

But Mother Nature has a heck of a pitching arm and can throw some serious curve balls. At times, genetic combinations can produce snakes that are almost unidentifiable and Mississippi has its fair share of them. From a blond rattlesnake to a pure white snake to one with two heads, the state has produced some wonders of nature.

So, let's take a look at four that range from beautiful to downright freakish.

A blond rattlesnake was in her face

Danielle Ladner of Yazoo County was picking up muscadines to make jelly and looked up to see a beautiful, but frightening sight.

"We were fixing to leave and loading up, and I bent over to pick up the muscadines and I looked up and there he is — 2 feet from my face at eye level," Ladner told The Clarion-Ledger in 2021. "He was right there. I don't do good with snakes. I screamed."

The snake was a venomous timber rattlesnake. It was captured and taken to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science where it was determined to have a pigment condition known as T-positive which left it lacking certain colors. It's a rare condition in itself, but the fact it survived to adulthood with no camouflage made it even more rare.

The snake, age unknown, was eventually put on display, but recently died.

More: Copperheads smell like cucumbers, don't they? Ten myths about snakes explained

A copperhead snake with stripes

Copperhead snakes are among the most common species found in Mississippi, but what Mary Lambdin Dennis of Madison found in her driveway in 2020 was anything but.

Dennis was driving down her driveway when she spotted it on the edge. She felt certain it was a copperhead due to the pattern near the tail, but the remainder of the snake was striped. The pattern is considered rare, but not unheard of. A copperhead with similar striping was found in Mississippi the following year.

Dennis' find is likely still doing what snakes do in Madison County.

"They probably would not bite me unless I was walking in the woods and stepped square on the middle of it," Dennis told The Clarion-Ledger in 2021. "There was no need to kill it."

What kind of snake is that? Ten of the more common you'll likely see in Mississippi

A ratsnake that's pure white

Like the copperhead, gray ratsnakes are among the most commonly encountered snakes in Mississippi. Their pattern makes them easily identifiable, but a rare genetic condition known as leucism left this one with no skin color, blue eyes and a red tongue.

Laura Mioton of Bay St. Louis, a wildlife rehabber at Wild at Heart Rescue, said she received a call in 2023 about a python that was found in the engine compartment of a truck. While a python would be quite a surprise, this snake was more surprising.

Colt Mooney, a wildlife biologist with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks who has extensive experience with snakes, couldn't put a number on how rare it is, but said the odds of finding such an animal are extremely low.

"Out of the hundreds of snakes I encounter each year, I've yet to find an aberrant-patterned individual," Mooney said at the time. "It's definitely a needle in a big haystack."

Because the snake is highly susceptible to predation due to a lack of pigment, he now serves as an educational ambassador in school and library educational programs.

A gray ratsnake with two heads

As the old saying goes, two heads are better than one and this gray ratsnake has just that.

The snake came to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in 2003, not long after it hatched. John Rushing, now of Monterey, Louisiana, was living in Jayess at the time when he found the snake while trimming shrubs. The snake fell out and landed upside down. When Rushing gently rolled it over with a stick, he realized what it was.

"It coiled up and then I could tell it had two heads, and I thought, ah, you've gotta be kidding," Rushing told The Clarion-Ledger in a 2015 interview.

Now, at roughly 21 years old, the snake remains a prime attraction.

This article includes previous reporting by former Clarion-Ledger writer Sherry Lucas.

Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Here are 4 of the strangest snakes ever found in MS