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I found this girl over my lunch hour yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised by the orange tones. The other ones around here seem to be more of a muddy tan and brown. The color doesn't come through as well in this picture after I shrunk it down to 500kb but she still looks good to me..

I wish it were always that easy to collect snakes. Are you gonna keep her? How long is she, and did you weigh her?

whether to keep her long term. Since she is a full-size female, I'm kind of tempted to see if she is gravid before I decide. Although I didn't weigh or measure her yet, she is about 4.5-5 feet long with a good, thick body. For now, she's tucked into a sweater box.
I was quite surprised to see her. I was wandering the edge of some ponds on base where I see a lot of water snakes. This is the first time I've found a Rat Snake there but this represents the 8th type of snake I've found there this year. That pond harbors 4 subspecies of Nerodia and I've also found Eastern Ribbons, Rough Green, and a gorgous Speckled King that I gave to a buddy for breeding. Its a great place to kill a lunch hour.

An adult with that much color...and reddish, at that! What state are you in? It would be interesting to find out if she could eventually produce a line of black rats like herself.
Duffy

To be honest, I wasn't looking to keep a WC Obsoleta but she has my interest. Maybe she's carrying eggs. She has interesting potential. If I decoide not to keep her, do you want me to drop you line?

Thanks for the offer, Mark, but I'm trying to hold steady at a dozen snakes right now. "Trying" being the operative word, of course. I was interested where you are, wondering if it could be an intergrade. I was thinking a little bit of Texas, but I guess not. Beautiful animal. Looks like you have yourself a great little herping spot. Duffy

I wish I could keep firm at 12 snakes. I just drew back to 13 for the move to Arizona.
The texas influence was the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw her but, Montgomery is too far out of the Lindi range. I suspect I'll keep her just to see what happens. Maybe I'll breed her with an albino next year to get a good look at that undercolor. Since the orange phase Texas is so well done, I doubt an Orange Obsoleta would be a big draw but I'm curious anyway. She seems like a decent project snake. She has a little settling to do yet. She tagged me this AM when I changed her water.

I have been looking at the picture for a while. I was inclined to think it was a cross between a Black and a Gray, but I think that Duffy's first impression is correct. There is a good chance that someone lost their pet Texas Rat a few years back. (I think you would need to find more like yours to confirm that there was a Texas Rat breading in the area.) It could also be the case that it was a breeder's "science experiment" that got loose.

Exotics are everywhere in the South. I remember seeing Mediterranean Geckos on my window screens at night when I was spending a summer doing research down in Pensacola a few years back. (I could have sworn that I wasn't in Europe that summer.)

I was wondering if readers of this forum had pictures of Black x Texas intergrades or Black x Gray. That might shed some light on whether this is a natural Black Rat morph or just an intergrade.

Thanks for posting the photo and telling us about your find.

I have found Gray Rats in Alabama that look exactly like the one in the photo. I always felt that they looked like Lindheimer's. Found one in Mobile, a five footer, and a yearling in Birmingham, both identical to this animal. They are considerd Grays, but I have my doubts. Perhaps more study is warranted.

Bart Bruno

I'll admit this ole boy wouldn't have thought Gray Rat with those colors. That said, Dwight just sent a citation from Mount that describes these snakes in the western counties of Alabama and calls them Gray Rats. The Black Rats I've seen here had a brown ground color and tan saddles. This didn't seem to far from that look - just the heavy orange influence.
Thanks for the inputs everyone. I think I'll end up keeping her. She grew on me pretty quick. I'm going to have to see what she can produce.