#Pantherophis spiloides
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Gray rat snake having a house sparrow for lunch.
#snake#snakes#rat snake#reptiles#wildlife#dead animal#predation#gray rat snake#Pantherophis spiloides
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noodle boy Linguine
#Linguine#gray rat snake#snake#reptile#Pantherophis spiloides#reptiblr#snek friend#CMNH#Oct 2022#just realized I spelled Noodle wrong after 268 notes whoops
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Gray Rat Snake (Pantherophis spiloides), family Colubridae, FL, USA
This species used to be considered a subspecies of the Black Rat Snake, Elaphe/Pantherophis obseletus, but the Rat Snakes of the U.S. have undergone considerable taxonomic revision over the last few years.
photograph by Nicole Dahrouge
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do you have any insight on black rat snakes, western rat snakes, and texas rat snakes? i’ve been doing some research on them, but it’s a bit confusing because different sources say different things about their taxonomy and if they’re the same species or not. thank you!
Ratsnakes can get confusing because so many species have similar common names, but I can help!
Black ratsnakes, Pantherophis obsoletus, are also commonly called western ratsnakes. They are beautiful and depending on location and subspecies, they can be solid black on their backs or they might have some spotting.
And the Texas ratsnake (P. obsoletus lindheimeri) is a subspecies of the black ratsnake. They always have very prominent patterning!
So, yes, all the same species! I can see why you had trouble finding an answer; in the past they were often placed in a very generic genus for New World ratsnakes, Elaphe. This placement has fallen out of use in academic circles but you'll still see it in outdated pages online.
And note, even though P. obsoletus is often sometimes called "gray ratsnake" as well as "black ratsnake," they're not to be confused with another species of ratsnake that's often called the gray ratsnake, Pantherophis spiloides.
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Hi! I hope you’re doing well. I was wondering if you could help me out? I know your primary interest is birds, and also that you’re from Florida, but you seem rather knowledgeable about all sorts of wild animals so I thought I might as well ask.
A relative of mine has been seeing a very large (4-5 feet long, maybe slightly longer) snake about once a year for the past 3-4 years, and none of us have a clue what it is. Said relative lives in Ohio, and my attempts to search “large snakes in Ohio” just lead to questionable exotic pets and searches for native snakes was bringing up smaller snakes that didn’t seem to fit the bill. My best guess was some kind of rats snake but it’s just a vague guess.
Here’s a pic for reference:
I’m also curious about the snake’s behavior. The family has a dog, and one of the adults is unemployed, so they’re outside often, yet they only see the snake once, maybe twice a year. Additionally, they live in a well-off suburban neighborhood, with little “wild” space, so I’m curious where the snake is living and what it might be eating. (Chipmunks??? Is it the reason they don’t have rats?) is this species native to the area? Or is it invasive?
Do you have any insight on any of this? No worries if you don’t, I just thought I might ask as my googling hasn’t been very successful, and I saw you post about snakes a couple of times.
Thanks for taking the time to answer, and I hope you have a lovely day/night! :)
Now that is one healthy looking snake! I believe the species that your relative has spotted here is indeed a gray ratsnake (Pantherophis spiloides). This species is native in Ohio and they can grow to be pretty large. Ratsnakes are wonderful to have around and as their name implies they make for fantastic pest control. Your relatives might have this friend to thank for keeping the numbers of rats and mice around their property to a minimum.
Snakes can be a bit more shy and elusive than some other animals, so it doesn’t surprise me they don’t see this individual too often. Rat snakes adapt to life around humans fairly well and aside from rodents they’re also happy to eat birds and eggs, as well as small lizards and amphibians. It’s in great body condition though so you can be sure this guy is eating good! If you or your neighbors happen to have a chicken coop, make sure not to use fake eggs as these can be lethal to snakes.
Thanks for sharing your snake! I really like this species (and all ratsnakes) and you have a really lovely specimen here. Wishing him many years of prowling for rats as your friendly neighborhood pest control.
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Found this cool fake skull in a cabinet so I gave it to Thelma and Louise the Gray Ratsnake (Pantherophis spiloides) sisters - i think they appreciated it :)
4/5/23
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Farancia erytrogramma
Pantherophis spiloides
Diadophis punctatus
Cemophora coccinea coccinea
(more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_snakes_of_Florida )
this was so fun fhdjjdhd
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Watch "Gray Ratsnake | Biking Adventures #shorts #snakes #cuteanimals" on YouTube
We saw this long noodle thing in the woods while riding our bikes. 🙂🐍
Gray Ratsnake - just doing snake things
#amberlou#bytesizeambs#loulouambrosia#youtube#youtube shorts#snake#cute noodle#cute snake#gray ratsnake
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Gray Rat snake (Pantherophis spiloides) in my mud room last night. Eventually I was able to move him/her along. A seemingly healthy population of this threatened species near my cottage.
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A bebe was rescued from a glue trap at work today! Look at this cutie, who chomped me multiple times while I was cleaning the glue off..
This guy is a grey rat snake (Pantherophis spiloides) and was released a little ways off behind our building, safe and out of the way of equipment and glue traps.
(Also, sorry for the very shitty phone pictures)
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flickr
Gray Rat Snake by Anna Nielsson
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I bet this big old grey rat snake was very disappointed to discover that the sparrow family who had been living in that bird house had already moved out.
They decided to just hunker down there for the night. I left them a chicken egg on the ground below the pole as a consolation prize for all their hard work but I dunno if they ate it or some other critter did.
#snakes#rat snake#reptiles#gray rat snake#wildlife#pantherophis spiloides#animals#idk how they crammed all 5ft+ of themselves in that little bird house lmao
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Todays Snake Is:
The Gray Rat Snake (Pantherophis spiloides) is a nonvenomous species found in the eastern and central United States and Ontario, Canada. These hardy snakes are excellent climbers, and will live just about anywhere they can find small mammals and other prey, including farms and suburban areas. When threatened, they will usually flee, but may rear up, musk, or strike when cornered.
(x)
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CURRENT WORK IN HERPETOLOGY:
Possible revision of the revision of the Pantherophis obsoletus group.
An interesting article from David Hillis in the latest edition of Herpetological Review, states that we should go back to an older view of the rat snakes in this group (Hillis, D. M. 2022. Species, clades, and their relationship to paraphyly and monophyly: Examples from the Pantherophis obsoletus complex. Herpetological Review 53:47–53.)
Have a look:
Now it appears we are back to where we were in the late 1900s with regard to the species boundaries.
There is good evidence to split one species from the rest of the complex: P. bairdi, on the basis of its narrow sympatry with P. obsoletus, with only rare hybridization (Olson 1977; Vandewege et al. 2012). The genetic data collected over the past twenty years are all consistent with the idea that the rest of P. obsoletus is a polytypic species, with several distinct subspecies that broadly intergrade over large areas of contact.
The genetic data suggest an additional split of the former subspecies P. o. obsoletus into two areas, which could be called P. o. obsoletus (the Western Black Ratsnake), and P. o. alleghaniensis (the Eastern Black Ratsnake). Exactly where these two forms intergrade, and how they might be distinguished without extensive gene sequencing, have not yet been clarified. Previous morphometric assessments were based on the mitochondrial groupings, which do not correspond closely to the more recent divisions of the taxa by Burbrink et al. (2020) based on nuclear genes.
According to the molecular data, the morphologically distinctive subspecies P. o. quadrivittatus (Yellow Ratsnake) is distributed where it was always thought to occur, on the southeastern Coastal Plain, and it broadly intergrades with P. o. alleghaniensis along the Fall Line, consistent with the geographic distribution of color patterns.
There has not yet been an explicit analysis of the contact zone between P. o. lindheimeri (Texas Ratsnake) and P. o. obsoletus, but the morphology suggests that these subspecies intergrade near the Texas/Oklahoma border. Likewise, the intergrade zones between P. o. spiloides (Gray Ratsnake) and the other subspecies of P. obsoletus require additional study to determine their exact location and the extent of intergradation. One or more additional subspecies with limited distributions (e.g., P. o. williamsi, Gulf Hammock Ratsnake) may warrant recognition as well, but sampling to date has not been sufficient to evaluate their taxonomic status.
Therefore, there is considerable work to be done to understand the geographic variation in P. obsoletus and the nature and interactions of its various subspecies. This suggests a wealth of future studies that would help illuminate the taxonomy of the group...
View or download the Pdf of the paper here.
photograph by Judy Gallagher | Wikipedia CC
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Found this sweet baby by the creek with a tummy full of somethin’. This is the second ratsnake in my life that has actually come toward me curiously like this and I just feel pure joy right now. 😭♥️🐍 **Gray ratsnake - Pantherophis spiloides**
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