Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was recently in South Dakota hiking in Badlands National Park and Custer State Park in the Black Hills. I had my eyes peeled for snakes the entire time, of course. I particularly wanted to see a Prairie Rattlesnake and a Bullsnake. I didn't get to see a rattlesnake, but I did find two bullsnakes. One was dead, unfortunately. He was caught in a plastic mesh that laid over the side of a hill in Badlands NP. I'm not sure what that was there for and couldn't seem to find anyone that knew. But I sent the park this photo in an email. The live one was crossing the road at about 8 am when we were driving from Custer State Park to Mount Rushmore. He was awesome. About 4.5 feet and pretty calm. He just laid there in the road and was very laid back when I moved him to a field so he wouldn't get run over. It was a bit chilly that morning though--low 60's.

Mike

looks like netting to hold new sod in place? I have seen similar netting way down here in south Texas where they were putting in new grass where they did road work previously. That live one is nice, great contrast!
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Todd Hughes

Nice find Mike. Love the two-tone browns.

Cheers,
Chris

bummer on the dead bull, good find with the live one tho

That's a very sharp looking snake.
I hope to someday find a Bull Snake in the field.

Tim

Wow, very nice Bull. What's up with the tail? It looks like naturally stubby.

Great lookin' pics of the Bull. Wonder if the dead one was killed somewhere else and dragged or tossed into the mesh.. just my $.02 of dead snake CSI.

reako45

Thanks guys.

As for the live one, the tail was definitely stubbed and looked a bit "chewed up".

As for the dead one, my first reaction was it may have been dropped by a raptor but on closer inspection, I noticed that it was knotted up in the mesh pretty bad. It looked pretty much like it was caught in there. Too bad.