Do Cottonmouths Hibernate in Water?

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I know it sounds like a dumb question, but, yesterday I retrieved a 6 pt buck out of a pond that a boy I was hunting with had killed. That pond is known to have cottonmouths. I know that snakes hibernate in the winter, I also know that they live in and around bodies of water. I was wondering if they did hibernate in the water, if wading in that pond after that buck would disturb them and risk being bitten?
 
They would drown.
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Nah man, they've got gills. :)


I am pretty sure most water snakes will stay in relatively high grass near the water but not in it. I have lived in Florida my whole life and when I found a snake near the water in the winter, they were curled up in grass or weeds. Snakes don't "hibernate" like a bear. They just become very lethargic and move as little as possible.
 
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Like most snakes they will den up for the winter. However, being from NC myself I can say that with the changes in weather we have all year long, it is not unusual to see them just about anytime of the year. If we have a warm spell they may come out to sun.
 
Snakes in the Winter

I saw a big Texas Rat Snake just last month when I was walking in from the deerblind. He was sunning himself. It was a cold morning but he was down in the grass on a sunny spot on the edge of the pasture. Micro-climate. I'm sure his black skin was solar-collecting. He looked around for one second, then disappeared into a hole well-hidden in the leaves. He was the SECOND Texas Rat I had seen doing that, not on the same property.

Several years ago, on a morning that finally froze me out of my position watching a creek bottom for deer, I was walking out and saw a full-grown cottonmouth watermoccassin who "gaped" his mouth at me when I walked up. It was so cold I was shivering from the effects of blood circulating through cold arms and legs from sitting so long. I was freezing to death in long underwear, coat, hat, gloves, et - and here was this snake who pops his fangs out at me when I walk up.

I think he was doing the same thing- solar-collecting in a micro-climate. He was in the sun. HE creaked his way into a hole about the size of a 50 cent piece* and was gone. Took him a minute because HE was so dang cold.

November snakes, december snakes, january snakes. I believe it.

* Not to be confused with Lee Paige and "Fitty Cents" Glock "fowty".
 
Do Cottonmouths Hibernate in Water?
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No. They do, however hibernate/den up in areas near water, often in overhangs and on ledges. Where the temperature goes below and stays below 40-50 degrees, expect them to hibernate until spring.
 
"...like to have starved to death..." You clearly didn't eat enough all summer and fall to pack on the tonnage for a long winter's nap.
What Kaa does in winter depends entirely on where he lives.
"...froze me out..." This too is relative. What counts as cold to you likely isn't to me. Certainly not to somebody in Whitehorse. It was -36C there yesterday. Minus 29 C in Calgary. Not here in London, Ont. though. It's supposed to be 17C here Wednesday.
 
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