Austrelaps labialis
A Copperhead in the bush
A copperhead on grass
A copperhead In the bush
A Baby Copperhead
Similar to the Tiger Snake is the Copperhead. They also have adapted to thrive in the colder Climates surrounding places like Ballarat, Ararat, Maryborough, Bendigo, Beaufort, Skipton, Avoca, Elmhurst, Stawell, Glenlofty, Warrak, Buangor, Ballan, Daylesford, Hepburn Springs, Clunes, Talbot, Lexton, Snake Valley, Creswick, Miners Rest, Redbank, Stuart Mill, St Arnaud, laanecoorie. All Copperheads are fairly similar in their appearance, a black or dark grey top of their body with an orange or gold, sometimes cream underbelly. They are fairly stocky and muscular in their build compared to other Snakes found in the area. There are three common species of Copperhead in Australia. The Pygmy, Highland and Lowland Copperheads. Since only the lowland Copperhead are found around the Ballarat, Ararat, Maryborough, Pyrenees and Grampians area I will only cover information on them. But they do have common features with each other.
They generally like to inhabit grassland and open scrub, they tend to stay close to a water supply like a creek or a dam. They like to shelter around rocks and fallen trees, but are not opposed to making homes in places humans create like compost bins, piles of firewood and under roofing iron and piles of tires. They can start becoming active as the weather starts to warm up around august and they start to disappear towards May for the winter. But on a warm winters day they can be seen basking in the sun.
Copperheads also don’t lay eggs, they are live bearing snakes. And like other snakes they have very little to no maternal instincts. This means that the babies are able to fend for themselves from day one. The babies are normally born around mid-summer and each mum can have 2 – 10 babies
Copperheads are also prone to have ticks, this is also a common occurrence in other reptiles like stumpy tailed lizards in our area.
A Copperhead is known as a good snake to have in your area because, as well as its main diet of frogs and lizards, grasshoppers and other smaller animals, they will also eat Tiger Snakes.