Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought this snake as a bull snake, but I don't know for sure if it is a bull. Maybe a gopher snake? What do you think?

This guy is great. Such a personality. He has days where you could manhandle him and he wouldn't care. Other days, he puts on a great show of hisses, mock strikes, and tail rattling. I think I am probably going to have to get more pituophis.

I can't say for sure as I've never kept bulls but I think that is what it looks like. I know it looks very different from any of the gophers I'm familliar with.

Sean.

That's a Sonoran Gopher Snake; looks like extreme west Texas or New Mexico locality to me.
Mike Collalto

That looks like a Sonoran Gopher to my untrained eye, esp. the pattern on the first 1/3 of the snake's dorsal area.

reako45

well reason I was assuming bull is combination of two things(although by no means proof, just opinion/observation)

First I've never seen a gopher that had as rounded or bulky of a head as the snake in the picture. All the gophers I personally kept were pacifics so may be subspecies specific but they had smaller angular/streamlined heads.

Secondly while I have seen mid body pattern fading in some sonorans, particularly ghosts, I don't remember seeing any where the fading extended as far along the body as it looks to in that picture.

Both of these two things could be affected by selective pool of my experiences or tricks of photo.

Would be interesting to hear what others have to say.

Sean.

Thanks for the explanation. I see what you are saying about the round head and fading. I've tried to find pictures of both bulls and gophers that match up, but none of them convince me one way or the other. I would also like to hear more opinions on this.