Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of the kids from my daughter's school in terlingua brought a very unusual snake to school today.

I haven't seen it yet, but hope to get some photos soon.

Here's a second hand description based on my daughters brief view of the snake: Snake is predominantly red with a few black rings. Body is mostly red. Some black rings around neck. Two or three more back rings near the tail. Approx 10-12 inches long. About a thick as a pencil. Smooth and round bodied.

Not sure where it was caught, but probably somewhere in so Brewster county.

Some of the kids and teachers at the school have a passing knowledge of local snakes but none could ID this one.

Any ideas?

I have found it difficult to identify snakes by someones description. Many times once you have actually seen the snake in person you wonder what it was they were looking at when they describe the snake in the first place.

With that mentioned, my guess is that it is a ground snake (sonoara). They are highly variable and I have found a number of red and red banded ones over the years in south Brewster and Presdio counties. Please let us know for sure once you see it.

DB

LOL. You're so right about snake descriptions by non-herpers. The only thing that gave this description more credibility (at least in ny mind) was that my daughter and several others who are basically familiar with local herps were unable to ID it.

The ground snake was my first guess due to their variability. However, I've never seen one like this. Your observation of similar ground snakes just turned my odds from 55% ground to about 85% ground. Hopefully, I'll get photos soon.

I was really hoping for an aberrant alterna, but it's seeming more and more unlikely.

Heaven to bids ? > it's one of those " let go " snakes that we have heard about from some other place and let lose in the Bend region ! LOL !
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......