Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This photo was taken by Sean McCann in Vero Beach, Florida. Vero Beach is on the Atlantic Ocean a little south of the midpoint of the peninsula.

He email'ed it to me and asked my opinion.

I think it is a Yellow Rat Snake which is gray in color. It clearly has the four dark stripes which characterize Yellow Rat Snakes. Sean estimated that it was 200 cm (or 78 inches) in length. There are few other species which reach that length. And it is holding its neck in the S-curve which is typical of rat snakes.

Vero Beach is far south of the range of the Gray Rat Snake.

The snake was not captured.

I'm posting the photo (with Sean's permission) in the Field Forum and in the Rat Snake Forum.

Any thoughts ? Is this morph common ?

My email is tspinker@hotmail.com and Sean's is smccann27@gmail.com

That snake looks alot like the greenish ratsnakes I find in S.C. Maybe its someones pet that escaped? Trey

Almost looks like a carolina obsoleta.

have you herd of gulf hammock yellow rat a mix with gary and yellow rat snakes. did you find it in north eastern FL?

I have decendants of a similar snake from Palm(??)county that Mark Lucas had for a while.It was the contention of Dwight Good that the anerythrism in these was not complete--that the yellow is expressed in more than one gene.Hence the yellow throat.There have been several of these found but I havent seen any brought into the captive ranks.It would be a nice gene to add to the red and lavender albinos that I am working with for sure! Go get it for me! Jeff

I posted the photo so that anyone who might be interested could see it. To me, reaching a definate conclusion as to what it is, is not so important.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

The Gulf Hammock Rat Snake was once thought to be a separate subspecies, Elaphe obsoleta williamsi, and is now believed to be an intergrade between the Yellow Rat Snake and the Gray Rat Snake. This type snake is suppose to be found only in NW Florida, not around Vero Beach where the photo was taken.

It is possible that it was transported there.