Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I got this guy from a reptile rescue a few years ago. They had IDed him as a yellow ratsnake, and not knowing much about ratsnake intergrade zones, I figured he was from somewhere at the edge of yellow and gray ratsnake ranges. The more I look at Texas ratsnake photos, however, the less certain I am about the ID.

It's an academic point - I've got no plans to get rid of him. He's a good, gentle pet snake that eats well and has been healthy for the three years I've had him, but I've always wondered exactly what he is.

Thanks for your guesses,
Billy

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Phillyherping

Sure looks like an intergrade to me -- Texas rat snake patterns mixed with the longitudinal striping you see in yellow rats. I suspect you could line up a half-dozen snakes from almost totally black through a mixture of grays, tans, browns, reds and even yellows and ID them all as rat snakes, with habitats spanning almost the entire eatsern two-thirds of the country. Truly America's snake!

I would agree with you and say yellow/texas intergrade. I saw a picture of one in a book I have and it's pretty much identical.

Billy

Where was it found? It sure looks like the Grey and Yellow Ratsnake are part of the mix. But if it wasn't found somewhere in the Grey x Yellow intergradation zone, it could very well be an escaped or released pet, in wich case it could be anything. So without locality data, it's very hard if not impossible to tell.

Thanks for the replies.

To be clear about what I know about him, there's no way to know about his origins. He came into the rescue as an adult, and they didn't have any kind of breeding history or locality data on him.

When I got him he was as big as he is now (somewhere around 5 feet) and had the same pattern. The rescue was in Baltimore, MD (I should throw in a pitch here for Holli and the other folks involved with the MARS rescue), so he certainly wasn't local. I've always had the sense that he was wild caught because of a few little scars, but really for all I know he could be the result of a captive breeding.

I'll settle for uncertainty, but thanks again for your ideas,

Billy

The scars could be from the snake being fed live animals at one time, so it may not be from the wild. I would just call it an Eastern Rat Snake and leave it at that.

Yeah,....

It really is IMPOSSIBLE to say with absolute certainty EXACTLY what other influence(s) it has, especially when you consider whatever it was crossed with could have other gene-flow from other subspecies as well!...know what I mean?

Sort of like the center of a "Tootsie Roll Pop"......"the world
may never know"!!LOL

As long as you're happy keeping it, that's really all that counts.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"