Western Rat Snake
| Pantherophis obsoletus | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Colubridae |
| Subfamily: | Colubrinae |
| Tribe: | Lampropeltini |
| Genus: | Pantherophis |
| Species: | P. obsoletus |
| Binomial name | |
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Pantherophis obsoletus (Say in James, 1823) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Pantherophis obsoletus – also known as the western rat snake, Texas ratsnake,black rat snake, pilot black snake, or simply black snake – is a nonvenomous species of Colubridae found in central North America. No subspecies are currently recognized.
The black rat snake is the most widely distributed common rat snake with a range from Massachusetts south through Georgia and west across the northern parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and north through Oklahoma to southern Wisconsin. There is also an isolated population in southern Canada and northern New York.
The yellow rat snake is found along the coast of the Carolinas south through Georgia and Florida. The Everglades rat snake has an isolated population in southern Florida's Everglades. The gray rat snake ranges from southern Georgia and northern Florida west through Mississippi and north to southern Kentucky. The Texas rat snake can be found in southern Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.
Common rat snakes live in a variety of habitats with each subspecies preferring a slightly different one. Some of these habitats overlap with one another. Common rat snakes are excellent climbers and spend a lot of time in trees. Black rat snakes live at elevations from sea level to high altitudes in the Appalachian Mountains. Black rat snakes live in habitats ranging from a rocky hillside to flat farmland.
It prefers heavily wooded areas and is known for having excellent climbing ability, including the ability to climb the trunk of large mature trees without the aid of branches. This snake is a competent swimmer. During winter it hibernates in dens, often with copperheads and timber rattlesnakes. This association gave rise to one of its common names, pilot black snake, and the superstition that this nonvenomous species led the venomous ones to the den.
Adults can become quite large, with a reported typical length of 106.5–183 cm (3 ft 6 in–6 ft 0 in). They are the largest snake found in Canada. The record total length is 256.5 cm (8 ft 5 in), making it (officially) the longest snake in North America. Unofficially, indigo snakes (Drymarchon couperi) are known to exceed them, and one wild-caught pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus), with a portion of its tail missing, measured 111 inches (2.8 m). The body mass of this rat snake can range up to 0.5 to 2.2 kg (1.1 to 4.9 lb) in adults, although most adults are on the smaller end of this scale, per herpetology research sites, with weighs most commonly between 0.77 and 1 kg (1.7 and 2.2 lb).
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Wikipedia