VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) -- Video of a local snake that surfaced on YouTube might make you think twice before ever approaching one of the slithery creatures in the wild.
YouTube user, Cory Routh, captured video of a cottonmouth moccasin making its way across open waters on Back Bay.
You can tell the venomous snake isn't one to be played around with after you see it open its mouth wide as a warning at the camera.
That's according to Routh, who is also an Environmental Specialist at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality,
He fondly named the snake "Mrs. Nosholders".
13News Now reached out to Routh who told us that the snake approached his boat while he was conducting water quality monitoring in Back Bay.
"As it approached, I put my GoPro down on an 8-foot pole," Routh wrote us. "We slowly backed the boat away and the snake followed the camera. More than likely, it saw our boat as a place to get our of the water."
"It was about a half a mile from the closest shoreline," he continued. "When it saw us on the boat, it started to get defensive."
Cottonmouths are semi-aquatic snakes that are often referred to as water moccasins. You can find them throughout the Southeast as well as north to southeastern Virginia.
They can be found in many freshwater habitats, but definitely stick to heavily-vegetated wetlands.
You can watch video of the snake strike below:
