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Gray Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta spiloides) Photo Credit: J.D. Wilson Other Names: Chicken Snake or Oak Snake ...
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Rat Snake
Elaphe obsoleta
Rat snakes are common on the throughout the Southeast. This species is found in a wide variety of habitats, but is most common in wooded or swampy areas. Adults frequently attain lengths of more than 4 feet.
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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.
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Rat SnakeRelated Category: Vertebrate Zoology see black snake. More on Rat SnakeBlack Snake - name for several snakes, not all closely related, that are black in color.
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Rat Snake
Elaphe obsoleta
Distribution: Southwestern US to Baja California and Mexico ...
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The rat snake will generally tame down in a short time to become very docile, even tempered, and tolerant of frequent handling.
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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.
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Rat snakes are large, powerful constrictors and excellent climbers. They are often found in barns and falling-down old buildings, where their shed skins may be draped in the rafters.
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Rat snakes are shy animals that tend to avoid confrontation. When they feel threatened, they coil up their body and vibrate their tail; if they happen to be coiled in dead leaves, the noise sounds like a rattle.
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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.
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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. RETURN TO TOP BIBLIOGRAPHY ...
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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, ...
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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. Plain is black often with white showing between scales.
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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.
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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! ...
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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.
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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.
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BAIRD'S RAT SNAKE FACTS
Description
Baird's Rat Snake is usually yellow or orange-yellow. It has four stripes along the body. The underside is gray or yellow, darkening near the tail. Hatchlings are about 30cm long and have gray and brown bands.
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The Black Rat Snake is diurnal in spring and fall, but becomes nocturnal in summer. They can often be found climbing trees to get to birds and eggs for food. They can also be found feeding on rodents and lizards.
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Albino Black Rat SnakeElaphe 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?
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Great Plains Rat SnakeRange An uncommon snake of the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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This Rat Snake is slow-moving and generally calm. It will hiss and may strike if threatened. Feeds on small mammals, birds, and lizards. Breeding: ...
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Tropical rat snake Elaphe flavirufa Yucatan hooked-nosed snake Ficimia publia Blunt-headed tree snake Imantodes cenchoa ...
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A large constrictor, the gray rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta spiloides), grows to seven feet long. Gray rat snakes commonly inhabit wooded areas around swamps and other wetlands, where they may be found high in the trees looking for birds and eggs.
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Kennicott used Ophibolus, Lampropelitis getulus and Bascanion constrictor for Coluber constrictor ( Racer) and Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta ( Black Rat Snake).
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Predators include corn snakes, rat snakes, owls, and opossums. Ongoing Recovery Locating and protecting key cave roosts is important, ...
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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.
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What's the difference between rat snakes (Elaphe) and king snakes (Lampropeltis)? According to the Handbook of Snakes of the US and Canada, these are the major characteristics that distinguish these genera from each other and from other genera ...
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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.
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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, ...
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Predators of eggs and nestlings include Raccoons, Virginia Opossums, Striped Skunks, Gray foxes, raptors, Groundhogs, other rodents, spotted skunks, rat snakes, Gopher Snakes, and pinesnakes.
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The Florida pine snake is a constrictor. It breaks egg shells internally much as the yellow rat snake does. It digs out pocket gophers with the large vertical plate on its snout and also eats rats, small rabbits, squirrels, birds and bird eggs.
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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.
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Several species of lizards and the harmless black rat snake will use these trees for shelter. Skinks lay their eggs inside dead standing trees. If den trees are not available, you could produce some by girdling old or deformed trees.
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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.
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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.
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Predators include cats, dogs, foxes, bobcats, hawks, owls, weasels, and rat snakes.
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Above and below each cavity the birds also excavate tiny holes—resin wells—from which resin exudes, apparently protecting the birds and their nests from climbing rat snakes (Elaphe obsoleta, E. guttata).
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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.
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 See also: Snake, Rat, Reptile, Black rat, Black Rat Snake
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