Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can someone tell me what this snake is? I have an idea, but want to make sure. It is mean, hisses when handled. i am thinking it has been wild caught from somewhere here in Cali. Any positive IDs would be great, thanks

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------Misty-------
Never knock on Death's door. Ring the bell and run. He hates that!

Misty,
That would be a Pacific Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer). Great looking specimen, and yeah, wild caught ones can be a lttle testy!
Cheers,
Mike Collalto

Gopher snake.

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------Misty-------
Never knock on Death's door. Ring the bell and run. He hates that!

...there are 5 subspecies of catenifer in the state of 'culliforniuh' as your hollywood tough-guy republican governor calls it,lol....best way to determine the exact subspecies?where exactly it came from,and go from there.so where was it found?(town/county,etc.),more so than a photo.the only ones i would ebgin to eliminate from it's appearence is santa cruz island and sonoran...that still leaves pacific,great basin,and san diego....

Locality info is always helpful when attempting to identify a snake to the subspecies. Often gophers show traits of more than one subspecies due to intergradation. Also "mutt's" are often created through captive breeding.

However, unless the snake pictured is some captive creation, It appears to be a pure pacific. I think CousinMike's ID is correct.

PB

well yeah,it sure does look like a pacific,probably more so than any other subspecies-except for the perhaps the great basin-there is just no way to be sure,i don't care who says other wise,from just that photo-those two subspecies(catenifer and deserticola) can be almost identical,right down to the scalation and pattern-and of course they do intergrade in the wild...i want to know,how can cousin mike and peebee be so sure that it is the nominate?maybe there is a key differentiating factor i am unaware of,etc....?i myelf would have to,at least,have the snake in hand and compare scale counts,body blotch counts,etc...and even that would be definitive only in somecases-so locale is key,for the most certainty.

Your're right, without locality info I can't guarantee that it's a pacific, however, I'd be very surprised if it weren't. It's body pattern does resembles that of some deserticolas (blotches high on the back), but this pattern is also common in pacifics. I think it's a pacific mainly because of it's narrow head shape (deserticolas have a slightly triangular head) and because it lacks any connecting anterior blotches.

PeeBee