Quote Originally Posted by Uncle Jesse View Post
Someone asked the question about how do fish get into pond that are not stocked by the owner. I am wondering how do snakes get into ponds. I don't believe snakes leave one body of water and crawl significant distances across land search for that new pond to explore. But in the south if you dig a pond, which are usually for watering cows or some agricultural related use, sooner or later you will have cottonmouths appear. How do they get there?
By hitchhiking on the shells of snapping turtles? The flaw in your theory that snakes don't travel long distances over dry land. Cottonmouths and snapping turtles do travel over significant areas of dry land to move between patches of water. In that regard, they are like mink, fly anglers, and other semi-aquatic animals.

Ed