Rat Snake
Elaphe obsoleta
Photo by JD Willson
Description: Rat snakes are the most common large snakes encountered by people in most parts of North Carolina.
Rat Snake
Black Rat Snake
(Elpahe obsoleta obsoleta)
Gray Rat Snake
(Elaphe obsoleta spiloides) ...
Rat Snake
Elaphe obsoleta
Distribution: Southwestern US to Baja California and Mexico ...
Rat Snake
Related Category: Vertebrate Zoology
see black snake.
More on Rat Snake
Black Snake - name for several snakes, not all closely related, that are black in color.
The rat snake will generally tame down in a short time to become very docile, even tempered, and tolerant of frequent handling.
Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta)
Photos by J.D. Willson unless otherwise noted
Black rat snake Gray Yellow Integrades ...
Rat Snake Consumes Squirrel
(:thumblist PantherophisObsoletusConsumesSquirrel imcl=sqr:)
Rat Snake Pair ...
Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta)
The Black Rat Snake is one of the largest snakes found in Connecticut. It is sometimes confused with the Black Racer, which
has smoother scales than the somewhat keeled rat snake.
Black Rat Snake
(Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta)
DESCRIPTION: 42-101" (106.7-256.5 cm). Long, powerful constrictor with 3 different adult color patterns predominating: plain, striped, and blotched.
Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta) at Bird Feeder
Black Rat Snakes are notoriously ingenious at climbing trees to raid bird's nests. This series of photos shows one snake's efforts to turn bird feeders into snake feeders! ...
Tiger Rat Snake, Thunder and Lightning Snake
Sighting:
Pook's Hill, Belize ...
TEXAS RAT SNAKE FACTS
Description
The Texas Rat Snake is large snake that is variable in color and pattern throughout its range. They are often yellow or tan in color, with brown or olive green irregular blotches.
Rat snakes produce a foul-smelling musk and release it on the predator if they are picked up, spreading the musk around with their tail. The musk acts as a deterrent. A few of the rat snake subspecies tend to be more aggressive.
Rat snakes can be seen in farm fields, hardwood forests, rocky hillsides, swamps, marsh edges.
Likes to Eat:
It feeds largely on mice, rats, and some birds, and it can quickly suffocate its prey by constricting it within the tight coils of its body.
Rat snakes are extremely important, both as predators and as prey. They help manage the rodent population by consuming small mice, rats, and voles but also become food for larger carnivores such as hawks, egrets, and foxes.
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Red Rat Snake Species Profile
Members of the rat snake clan can have stripes, blotches, or a combination of stripes and blotches; even unicolored species can be found. Corn snakes have an attractive "checkerboard" pattern on their ventral surfaces.
Black Rat Snakes are among the largest of Minnesota's snakes. Adults range from 40 to 74
inches in length. The record is 101 inches (Conant and Collins, 1991). It is non venomous and, ...
Texas rat snakes average around 4 to 5 feet, but 6 ft.+ "giants" still turn up fairly frequently in some areas. The pattern is that of a blotched snake.
Green Rat Snake (Senticolis triaspis)
No photo of the Green Rat Snake available.
Texas Rat Snakes are sometimes referred to as "chicken snakes," because they are occasionally seen in or around chicken coops. Many people believe that they are there eating the chickens and their eggs, but this is not necessarily the case.
Black rat snakes are one of the longest snakes in North America, occasionally reaching lengths of 8 feet.
2.
When threatened, rat snakes will "rattle" their tail, fooling other animals into believing they are venomous.
The Black Rat Snake is a proficient climber. Often it goes rather high up into trees, where it uses cavities or hollows formerly occupied by other animals such as birds or mammals.
Albino Black Rat Snake
Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta
A 6 foot plus, heavy bodied ratsnake. I really like them because they have an attitude. It almost appears as if they look at you to say, "Where is my rat?
When looking for snakes, you might not think to look up. But, if you want to see the black rat snake, you just might have to. This long and muscular snake is Wisconsin's only arboreal (that means tree-dwelling) snake.
Black Rat Snake
Click on images to enlarge
Pantherophis alleghaniensis (42-72", up to 101") ...
Tiger rat snake
Class: Reptilia
Status: IUCN: Not Listed; CITES: Not Listed
Tiger salamander ...
Eastern Rat Snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis)
Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos)
Eastern Milk Snake (Lampropeltis t. triangulum) ...
Rat snakes are found from New England south through Florida and west through the eastern halves of Texas and Nebraska and north again to southern Wisconsin (Staszko and Walls 1994).
Rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta)
photo credit: Jeff Beane
Hoop Snakes
According to folklore, when frightened a hoop snake will bite its tail and form a rigid circle which allows it to travel downhill like a wagon wheel.
Rat snakes defend themselves vigorously when threatened by drawing the forepart of the body into an impressive “S' loop and rapidly vibrating the tail. Rat snakes are good tree climbers; keels on their scutes aid in climbing.
Black Rat Snake
Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta (scientific) . Eastern Rat Snake (alternative)
The Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta) - also called pilot black snake or simply black snake - is a non-venomous colubrid species found in North America.
Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta)
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Eastern Hog-nosed Snake (Heterodon platirhinos) ...
The resulting resin flow is a deterrent to climbing gray rat snakes (Elaphe obsoleta spiloides), a predator of red-cockaded woodpecker eggs and nestlings [22].
King snakes, rat snakes, milk snakes, gopher snakes and other colubrids (belonging to the zoological family Colubridae) will be happy in 30-55 gallon tanks. Boa constrictors and pythons are a different story.
Kennicott used Ophibolus, Lampropelitis getulus and Bascanion constrictor for Coluber constrictor (Racer) and Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta (Black Rat Snake).
The Cobra eats mostly cold-blooded animals, including snakes (like the rat snake) and lizards. After swallowing a large animal which can take hours, the Cobra can go without food for months.
Reproduction ...
Predators include corn snakes, rat snakes, owls, and opossums. Ongoing Recovery Locating and protecting key cave roosts is important, ...
Corn and Rat snakes both belong to the genus Elaphe; Corns belong to the species Elaphe guttata; many of the rat snakes are subspecies of Elaphe obsoleta. For a full list of the Elaphe species, see the EMBL Database: Colubridae: Elaphe.
Their most important predators appear to be rat snakes, corn snakes, opossums, and certain species of owls. Large cockroaches may prey on newborn young that fall to the ground.
Photo credit: Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International.
Eggs and chicks are vulnerable to chipmunks, raccoons, Blue Jays, American Crows, black rat snakes, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Common Grackles, southern flying squirrels, gray squirrels, least weasels, white-footed mice, domestic cats, Great Horned Owls, ...
Some other harmless snakes that you may find in your yard are black rat snakes, fox snakes, hognose snakes and banded water snakes.
Taiwan Beauty Snake (Chinese Rat Snake)
scientific name
Elaphe taeniurus ...
A roadrunner life does have its dangers. Roadrunners are occasionally preyed upon by hawks, house cats, raccoons, rat snakes, bullsnakes, skunks, and, coyotes eat nestlings and eggs. During the winter months, many succumb to freezing, icy weather.
Recorded from Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester counties. Local subspecies called "Black Rat Snake". Listed as Endangered.
Eastern Hog-nosed Snake
Heterodon platirhinos ...
Burbrink, F. T., R. Lawson, and J. B. Slowinski. 2000. Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of the North American rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta): a critique of the subspecies concept. Evolution 54: 2107-2114.
Predators include cats, dogs, foxes, bobcats, hawks, owls, weasels, and rat snakes.
Earth tones and the hourglass pattern on the snake's back help disguise them in the wild. Copperheads and non-venomous rat snakes will vibrate their tails in leaf litter to make a buzzing noise, which helps to scare away potential predators.
Snakes eat small animals like rodents, which can carry diseases. Many people have a lot of misconceptions about snakes, so take a few minutes at Cypress Swamp to learn about the yellow rat snake and the Louisiana pine snake.
Ongoing habitat fragmentation and intensive cattle ranching increase predation by rat snakes, Blue Jays, Western Scrub Jays, and American Crows. It can also increase brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds.
The woodpeckers peck holes around the cavity entrance to release the sticky resin, which helps deter predators such as rat snakes from invading the nest.
 See also: Snake, Rat, Reptile, Black rat, Black Rat Snake
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