Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Black rat?

.

But now I'm thinking its probably a western black kingsnake (L. g. nigrita). I guess ID-ing the prey might help as well...

Thanks for posting the second pic. I saw the first pic a while back and thought it was a black rat. The closeup of the head looks more like an indigo snake. An indigo would make much more sense since rats aren't known for eating other snakes.

The prey is not an eastern diamondback, as far as I can tell, so I don't think its an indigo. I'm no rattler expert, but I'm thinking the prey is a mohave...?

That's an Indigo all right. Although a Texas Indigo rather than an Eastern. The Prey looks to be a Western Diamondback.

I'm trying to pin down locality info. I have reason to believe the picture may have been taken in Arizona. Do Texas Indigos get up there?

No they don't. If this picture was taken in the wild, those pictures were taken in TX, or maybe Mexico

you obviously seem very sure of the Texas Indigo ID. What in the picture seals the deal for you? I trust you, just wondering what gives it away. I've been looking at pics of all the possibilities, and I haven't a clue.....

The black eyelash marking under the eye, the distintinctive marking on all northern spieces of the genus, and the size of the body scales,(indigos have the largest) and the white skin striping that is showing under the scales on the neck usally only visable as juviniles, and remember there are huge numbers burmese pythons released and breeding in south florida, so the texan rubidus can be found in a close by state, but rarly. JB Oh! and thats a western db...

What's a rubidus, and what do they or burmese pythons have to do with this discussion? The Texas Indigo is Drymarchon corais erebennus, from what I can tell...

I believe he was pointing out that snakes are sometimes found in places other than their native ranges. One of them might have been an escape or a release, so you can't completely rule out two snakes from different ranges.

I don't know enough to have an opinion on whether that might be the case here.
-----
What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

np

Coloring, scalation and head shape all scream Indigo to me. The Texas Indigos are known for that brownish facial coloring as opposed to the red of the Easterns. Even if it was a dull colored Eastern, the range of the WDB doesn't get close to the Easterns, so we are left only with the Texas. This of course is starting with the assumption that these pictures were taken in the wild and not staged in someone's back yard. After doing some additional Googleing, I found this (see link below) which has a more complete series of photos for this event.
Texas Indigo

That pic is at least a year old and has been around.
TX indigo and w. rattler.
:Mark
-----
Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

I see that now. It was presented as a recent picture on another non-snake board I read....

2nd the Western Diamondback
-----
2 Gary-banded kings
1 bull snake
2 cal kings
1 long-nose
2 black rat-snakes
2 bearded gragons
4 boxers

gotta be, looks like it too
.
.
.
-----
09 odds factors ...
......118
......108/ 13-8-1DIE
...........................
1(1.normal,.1mojave,2.1 spider mojaves)
2(1.normal,1.pastel,spider?Huh,.1blast)1 dud 2 boobs died...
3(2pastelghost,3pastel,1normal....)
4(2.normal,3.4 pastel...)
5(1.pin,5normal...)
6(2normal,1pastel,1.pastel-ghost..)
7(6faded amel,2het(axanthic looking faded)....

There is no doubt that this is a TX Indigo, that it is eating a Western Diamondback, and I'm pretty confident this situation was photographed of a wild snake (particularly clear when you see the full set).
The little you can see of the land in the full set looks like South Texas as well.

That's one patient photographer! That must have taken an hour or more to swallow.

Why would there be any speculation that this was taken anywhere else?

It won't be long until someone gets this photo in an email saying it was taken by a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan! :lol:
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I'm reminded of that photo of a pile of rattlesnakes emerging from a sandy den. I don't remember what kind of rattlers they were or where the photo was taken but every time it was posted on a forum the species and location changed. I remember people saying it was florida, texas, arizona, mexico. One poster I think was even claiming somewhere in Asia. Don't even get me started on what's wrong with that. Every time it was posted it was always posted as if a friend of a friend took the photo. My point is that even if you were to track down what looks like an original post claiming the photos were taken in Arizona, I personally wouldn't believe it until knowing for a fact that I was in direct correspondence with the person who took the photos.

I saw those pictures last year; Here's a link with a little more info on the photos (and a few more in the series).

http://fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18755&p=175094&hilit=indigo+eating+rattlesnake#p175094

-----
Joe