Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I never did find where I put the pics of the "Black Rats" we would catch in AL but here is a recent scanned shot from someone else. We called these Black Rats because we had normal Gray ones but none that were primarily Black. Although its always open to debate, the local zoo curator agreed with that designation. I always thought it was intriguing to wonder about how that particular coloration came about. Obsoleta of all types are still my favorites. What cool and varied snakes. You just goota like these guys.

Here we go...

Im from Alabama, and all we have are black rats lol.. Down close to moblile and montgomery i have seen some gray rats.. that looked like that..

I also saw this color shceme in the NW part of the state.

What can I say? The whole 4 years there, I never saw a black colored Rat Snake. We saw plenty of this coloration and plenty that were gray.

This fellow was found curled up in my grill just before we moved. No doubt about his ssp.

This is the darkest Rat Snake I found around there. The Lindhi influence is pretty obvious - lots of orange around the saddles. Though it is outside the posted range, I think this one looks more like Tx rat than a Black Rat. I suspect there is a fair amount of flow across the gene pool.

Ive lived in North Alabama my whole life and only see true black rats i mean the color of racers lol.. but south alabama i find gray rats..

Here is another grey rat that is from a location about 10 miles from where the picture Mark Banczak posted.

The first picture is the a snake as a hatchling to show the massive ontogenetic change it went through.

The second picture is the same snake about 2 years later (I took the picture tonight) As you can see, he is also developing a lot of the yellow which shows up a little in the picture.

I feel SO sorry for you all..... all the black rats around here are jet black with absolutely NO pattern! also they all get huge! Most all of them I have seen are well over 6'. Accept one that I rescued from some idiot who was pokeing it with a broomstick so it would "go away" some people....
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Redtail "Kilo"
1.0 Ball Python "Road Hog"

I kinda felt sorry for me too. I always liked those big jet black guys.

lol i live in north alabama and there jet black and huge... 7 foot is not even rare here...

glad I came back to visit the rat snake page or I would have missed this!

Thanks for sharing those pics. I wish I had more rat snake pics to share as well, but I see them so often I guess I take them for granted and rarely take pics of them. The county I live in is more west-central than north. I guess I should have made that a little clearer. If you know where the University of AL is in Tuscaloosa I am located just 40 miles north of there in Fayette County. Most of the rat snakes from that area are grayish brown and an occasional darker specimen that's really dark gray, almost black. Those pics you posted are very similar to what we usually see.

Since catching that really yellow rat I posted a while back I have had the opportunity to see several very nice yellow phase black/gray intergrades from Huntsville, and they are not the same as the snake I have. I guess it's really hard for cameras and on-screen viewing to share the beauty of some animals. I'm still under the impression that the one I have is still a hypo of sorts. It is just far too different and ghostly than any other snake I've ever seen. The other yellow gray rats I've seen(and I've seen around 30 or so in the last few years) haven't looked even remotely close to this snake in person. Maybe I can capture some good representative pics before I release it. That's what I have decided to do. It has been eating very well on rats and quail from RP, but it is not adapting to the captive environment very well at all. So I have decided to release it back on my folks farm. It spends all day and night rubbing it's nose on the enclosure and has developed quite a noserub. The last thing I want to see is this snake end up with health issues over my curiosity to breed it out.

But thanks for sharing all those pics!

Hey I caught a gray rat in Huntsville that was yellowish also.. about 2 years ago.. and some nice grays in mobile, but in dekalb county where i live all blacks lol.. i know these are not yellow intergrades.. yellow rats arent even in the alabama range.. Can u post that pic again you was talking about i must have missed it?

zach

Here are two pics, one of the snake in question, and another with a very dark individual caught a very short distance from the yellow one. All other yellow phase grays that I've seen haven't been this extreme.

Awesome snakes, i have seen them like that in southern Alabama but not that much yellow and pale looking it might be hypo, but in Alabama there are alot of weird phases in rats lol, i seen a greenish black rat the other day and one with red blotches i thought it was a corn at first lol...

I sure have nothing against keeping w/c but I agree with your move. I once spent 8 months trying to acclimate a snake and then regretted trying so long.
I'm glad you posted the picture again. I was looking for it the other day. The gray head sure speaks to gray heritage of some degree - no doubt about it. Its a awful nice snake and maybe you'll see it again. That would be cool.