Photo © 2005 Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved.

Black Rat Snake

While (nearly) everyone fears the dreaded rattlesnake human opinion is more divided on the subject of the non-venomous Black Rat Snake. These large (up to seven feet), common, and abundant snakes - usually blue black with white throats - have thrived at our culture's arrival. Better mousers than any combination of cats they feed on all kinds of rodents and are one of the few species of snake that people are glad to see - some people even going so far as to release specimens in barns and warehouses to rid them of rodents.

Upon waking in spring Black Rat Snakes hearts' lightly turn to love. Males are often encountered sniffing the ground with their tongues in search of the scent of females at this time of year. If successful, their pursuit will blossom into romance which is followed by the female depositing up to twelve eggs in some safe, moist place in late May and June with babies appearing in our area in September.

Black Rat Snakes are also our most arboreal snakes. As the above photo shows these strong, muscular snakes can easily (if slowly) climb the fissured bark of nearly any tree. Once among the branches they move almost as fast as they do on the ground. Here they hunt insects, birds and squirrels. Should a snake ever happen to fall out of a nearby tree (and this happens far more often than you'd think!) you can be almost positive that it's just a harmless Black Rat Snake.

From our Archive:

• Hatching Reptile Eggs

Offsite link:

• Black Rat Snake pictures and some notes on behavior

Suggest a link! Send suggestions to Webmaster