Good snake ID site? (*not for the squeamish*)

^Nice link, I found one for NC my father is the same type of person tries to kill a snake first and then ask questions.


By the way snakes are cute

That's exactly what I was looking for, Doug!! Just pefect. MUCHO thanks! :biggrin:

And you're right about rat/chicken snakes being the same thing. This is the "chicken snake" I shot: TEXAS RAT SNAKE, Elaphe obsoleta lindheimerii. What a bummer since now I'll have to watch out for extra rats around the place, but since he was eating almost all my eggs it was necessary that he go. I haven't had many eggs for a while and those girls need to earn their keep somehow ~ chicken food isn't cheap!

I haven't gotten any eggs at all yesterday or today which isn't surprising since upset chickens won't lay as well. I'd be pretty darn upset if someone came into my bedroom, ate my "kids" in front of me, and another someone came in and BOOM!! :icon_lol: So I can't blame the girls. Maybe I'll get more eggs tomorrow. After a long dearth of eggs, spinach quiche for dinner sounds really good.

I'm headed back over to that site to learn some more. I hope they have answers to my other questions about the split-scales below the anal vent and triangular heads.

Good for you Linda! So many people are afraid of them, it's nice to see someone actually trying to learn about them.

I worked at pet stores far too long to be afraid of the snakes, and ended up taking a couple home with me. If you met my Baazil, he'd change your mind quick... as long as you kept him away from your chickens. Poor gals! They must have been scared.

He's a snow corn, a not too far off relative of your chicken snake.

I never thought I'd say this, but that's a pretty snake, Jen. I've never seen one that color! Stepson#1 has snakes and bugs (had ~ traded them for aquarium stuff ~ I got him hooked GOOD! :icon_lol ~ he had an entire room for them. I could hardly stand to go in there. *Heehee-blush* (BTW ~ finished the Cornwell Arthur trilogy last week ~ I did the same as you, closed the last book and sat there going, "Whoa!" ~ am ordering the Saxon Chronicles and Grail Quest books next I think. )

No worries, Geoff ~ it's not illegal to kill chicken snakes in Texas. Even if it was, like Canoe said, those rules get bent pretty often when agricultural damage is factored into the equation.

Canoe, if I come across another one, want me to box him up and send him to you? :icon_lol: That is IF I can find someone to handle it 'cause I'M NOT touching it! You should have seen me and Mae, a girlfriend who's been staying with me, handle this one. She was holding the flashlight and me with the gun, standing in the henhouse, looking at each other expecting the other one to grab the snake to get it out of there. Nope! On to plan B ~ looooong handled tongs. :icon_lol:

Linda - Are you sure that snake was eating your eggs? I didn't realize that rat snakes ate eggs. I'm not saying they don't - I just didn't know that.

Rat snakes - of all varieties (including Jen's LOVELY corn snake variety) are usually very helpful snakes. And not vicious either - unless cornered. Or picked up. But that is the same with most wild animals. But if you get bitten by one, you'll have some pretty distinctive marks where those teeth went in. They're curved, and go in real cleanly. But on the way out they tear a little bit (they are curved, to help them hold their prey), and will leave little tiny cuts where each tooth came out.

And telling poisonous snakes is fairly easy. And the excellent link higher in this thread will bear witness to this. There are only two types of poisonous snakes in the US - coral snakes and pit vipers.

Coral snakes are EASY to tell. If the first color band is black, and it goes from the tip of it's nose PAST its eyes - it's a coral snake. Any other colors before tip of nose and beyond the eyes, and it's something else. Something you don't have to worry about. IMO - all that "red on yellow" crap is misleading, sometimes wrong, and confusing. Stick with "black beyond the eyes" and you won't go wrong.

Pit Vipers (rattlesnakes, copperheads and water moccasins) are a bit harder, but in a nutshell you have three serious markers. They have triangular heads, fat bodies (unless undernourished) and vertical slits in their pupils - like a cat. And all rattlesnakes DO NOT have rattles. So the absence of a rattle is not a confirmation of a snake being OK.

To illustrate what I'm taking about on head shape, and body thickness, go look in the website mentioned previously and compare the water moccasin and the diamondback water snake pictures. Most of the snakes killed in the US as "water moccasins" are actually the far more common diamondback water snake. So many, many harmless snakes get killed with a bad rap. But I digress.

If you compare those two species, you can see the difference in the head size, and body thickness. It's subtle. So frankly if you don't know the difference - it's best to stay away. And if you are looking at the pupils... well, you should have known what you were looking at before you got that close.

But in the case of your rat snake, the difference in head shape and body thickness should be fairly evident. All of the pit vipers have far more triangular heads, with the characteristic "cheek bulge" on each side. Other snakes bulges there will be far less pronounced. And the pit viper will be a lot fatter. Look at Jen's corn snake - not a fat snake. Not skinny. But not fat.

But as always, when in doubt, leave it alone.

Sorry for the rant. But it's always nice to have a chance to clear up people's confusion over snake identification.

Ooops

I realized after my last post, there are two snakes in North America that kind of break the above rules - the Eastern/Western Hognose snake and the Pygmy Rattlesnake.

Hognoses - usually very gentle snakes, are fatter than most snakes, and even have a head that has a shape that is suggestive of a pit viper - except that it has the tip of it's nose turned up, hence the name. The Pygmy rattlesnake is a tiny version of a rattler, but is usually not very fat, small, and has no rattles. I guess there are exceptions to everything.

I'm acutely aware of these difference because of the following true story...






There's a lesson in here somewhere. I guess it has to do with being careful with snake identification. And when in doubt, leave it alone. And maybe if you are like my friend - and think you know, but are really an amateur at snake identification - it's still a good idea to leave them alone until you are sure.

PS - the little rattler really was cute. I captured it again (carefully!) and took it home where I kept it for a number of months, before its eventual release back into the wild.