Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I figure this might be of some interest to you guys on this board. I got a call from my mom the other day about a "huge" snake in her yard. It turned out to be around a 3ft patternless southern pine snake. It looks to be a male. I thought it was kind of cool since I've never even found a pine snake before in the wild, much less a patternless one. That brings me to the question of how common the patternless ones are in the wild? Do you guys think it is likely an escapee? There is a pretty large wooded are behind her house. I primarily keep African elapids so I don't keep up with Pituophis too much. It's a cool snake regardless and I'm still debating whether or not I should bring it somewhere and let it go. I'm going to try and feed him a couple of times before I do anything with him whatever it is.

Thanks, Jamie

Very cool. It would be interesting to know how common they are in the wild. What part of the country do you live in?

Jason

I'm located in Charleston South Carolina.

Southern Pines are extremely rare and a patternless is even rarer.! That is an OUTSTANDING FIND!

Most would keep that and breed it. ...but, letting it go in a safe location in proximity to its place of discovery would be a noble thing to do. I would be agonizing over that conundrum.

You might want to check the wildlife laws in your state too as that might well be protected by law.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Charleston is actually in the range of Northern Pine Snakes, so your snake is either an escaped Southern Pine, or a patternless Northern, which would be quite rare.
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www.brooksi.com

Cool, thanks for the info. I was actually going to do scale counts when he sheds but from what I found online it seems that the scale counts for the southern and northern pines overlap. I'll still count them but if you have any other advice on how to pick them apart it would be very appreciated.
-Jamie

Other than scale counts there really isn't a good way to tell them apart, especially with an abnormal example like that. You could always send him to me and I'll tell you what I think!

Nick
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www.brooksi.com

Escaped pet. Does not look Northern.