inyati - snake id help

[M5farm]

I rarely kill one Ron. Of course I rarely see them on our place.

Yes, I relocate them if they are a neusense. They eat the mice.

Same here I only kill rattlers and cottonmouths that are in my yard or where someone could get hurt. We have alot of white oaks and black snakes and a big king snake that I see a few times a year I just let them be as long as they are not trying to get in the house.

 

[oscar p]

I got a 6 ft king snake out of my Martin gourds,the other day. Would post pic's if I had enough sense to.

 

[Nesikep]

It looks really nice! I have a snake for you to ID as well, but it'll take me a while to find the pictures... about 2 ft long or so, black, yellow stripe along both sides all the way, and red spots above the stripe... was very nice. A while back I caught what I believe is a rubber boa, it was hard to tell which end was which, it was blunt on both ends, and I think it was a brownish olive green.. the one I caught was about 2 ft long or so as well, though I think I saw another (and his shed skin closeby) that was considerably bigger.. I just saw him slither into the grass, but the skin I saw was certainly 3', and possibly 4'. Now I'm bad at identifying snakes because no one knows what's what, and everyone contradicts themselves.. I don't believe the garter snakes get that big.
Biggest snake I've seen here was a king snake I think, gray with white and black in diamond patterns, I think it was a good 5' long and over an inch around.

I've caught a couple lizards and salamanders here too, but they're a really rare find.

Not many snakes in Canada.
Your snake is this one. Go down to the subspecies list. The BC subspecies is T. e. vagrans:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_te ... rter_snake

But you must read the description. Snakes can vary considerably and garter snakes vary more than most.

Only one snake in NA that fits the Rubber Boa and you described it. Charina bottae.

The big snake is the Pacific Gopher Snake, Pituophis catenifer catenifer. But the old species name was
P. melanoleucus catenifer. When I was in Montana everyone called the Gopher snakes bull snakes. There are about 10 subspecies of Gopher snake so don't expect every picture to look exactly like the one you saw but it is a hard snake to misidentify. Also, the only 5 foot snake in your area. They can be aggressive biters and they hiss. Nonvenomous.

That is very similar to the one I saw... I guess around here, since there are no gophers, he's a packrat snake.. certainly have plenty of them!.. And I've heard people around here call them bull snakes as well.
I like snakes, but not enough I'd have one as a pet (though you never know..), my friends have about a 10 ft boa in a terrarium, about 4" around, certainly beautiful (in it's own way), and darned heavy!

 

[Ryder]

All I know is that neither snakes pictured in this thread is a good snake....yet!

+1

 

[Don McCallum]

Inyati or anyone, I found a snake several years in my yard, I was in my 50's and had never seen one like it. I phoned my father, and he came and identified it as a
mud snake. The snake from the tip of his nose to 3 or 4 inches back was solid red. I looked at mud snake tonight and none had this color down their necks. The
rest of their bodies looked very similar. Is this very rare or what?

 

[inyati13]

Inyati or anyone, I found a snake several years in my yard, I was in my 50's and had never seen one like it. I phoned my father, and he came and identified it as a
mud snake. The snake from the tip of his nose to 3 or 4 inches back was solid red. I looked at mud snake tonight and none had this color down their necks. The
rest of their bodies looked very similar. Is this very rare or what?

Don, that does not fit a mud snake. They are mostly dark above; not solid red. Our native snakes do not have solid red that extends that far back. But some have a combination of red and other bright colors that together extend back that far such as the Scarlet snake and milk snake.

Where do you live? I am assuming the Southeast. If it is a scarlet snake, Cemophora coccinea, it would be a rare find but not impossible. How rare? I never found one in all my collection efforts in KY. I have had some special finds. A corn snake in what is called a disjunct population. I saw it dead on the road near Natural Bridge, KY. I knew the population had been reported and I screamed at the top of my lungs for the person driving to stop the car. I went into the road and got it. It was in excellent condition. I don't know how many have been found in the population now but at the time only a handful had ever been reported in the literature. I preseved it and kept it before turning it over to Morehead State University where I guess it still is. A disjunct population is a population of species that are isolated from their main genetic pool. It is often impossible to figure out what causes it but it is usually due to geologic conditions such as canyons, mountain ranges, etc. The earth is always changing. Mountains rise and fall due to erosion. Rivers build canyons. Oceans move. It all affects the populations of species, plant and animal.

The milk snake may appear to have a red head but again, it is not solid red. The Milk snake is common in some areas. I hit one mowing last summer. Bushhogs kill a lot of animals.

The fly in the ointment would be that someone released an exotic snake.

 

[Don McCallum]

Inyati, I live in SW. MS.

 

[inyati13]

Inyati, I live in SW. MS.

Ok, then you have the Scarlet Snake (not to be confused with the Scarlet Kingsnake) and the Milk snake.

It could also be an exotic. No native snake in your area has a solid red body all the way around its circumference for the first 4 inches.

 

[ga.prime]

 

[M5farm]

KING Snake ??

 

[ga.prime]

Yes, it's an Eastern Kingsnake. I was going across a pond dam on my 4 wheeler yesterday and saw him. I had to go to the house and get my camera. I was back in 5 minutes and thought he'd be gone but he was burrowing under the pine straw. He must have thought that was a good place for an ambush.

 

[inyati13]

Very nice. Great picture.

 

[ga.prime]

Thanks, Inyati.