Reptile & Amphibian Forums

this is going to drive me nuts til i find out.. I cant find anything online about it.. does anyone out there know what the heck a sleeping john is.. I have relatives in Michigan and friends that told me about this kind of snake that is relatively large, black and very docile they call it a sleeping john obviously thats not the name of it but when i ask questions they say no i would know that snake but dont know what kind this is.. any one have any ideas? i guess its approx 6-8'long but its docile and my relatives are scared of them but i would like to know what they are
Jason

Hi Jason –

I’ve got to admit, I’d never heard a snake called "sleeping John" before. It’s obviously an old-timey common name. So I looked in an older book which lists many common names for all the species covered, Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada (1957). Sure enough, one of names shown for the black rat snake, Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta, is “sleepy John.”

You can find out lots of information about this very common and harmless snake by searching on this site or by using any search engine.

-Joan

>>this is going to drive me nuts til i find out.. I cant find anything online about it.. does anyone out there know what the heck a sleeping john is.. I have relatives in Michigan and friends that told me about this kind of snake that is relatively large, black and very docile they call it a sleeping john obviously thats not the name of it but when i ask questions they say no i would know that snake but dont know what kind this is.. any one have any ideas? i guess its approx 6-8'long but its docile and my relatives are scared of them but i would like to know what they are
>>Jason

thanks I thought it was a rat snake but everyone else did not. Makes me feel better now to know that I was right. Thanks for the info.
Jason