Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Shot this last week at Castlewood State Park near St. Louis, MO. Noticed a long section of snake on top of a log, and when I approached the snake pulled its head out from under the log to reveal a mouthful of mouse with two pups attached! The snake darted around looking for an escape, losing one pup in the process.

Nikon d70, Sigma 105 Macro lens.

First of all, I have to congratulate you on a great shot. What wonderful timing, and what a dramatic story!! I am definitely envious of your luck.

However, I have to question whether or not that was a black rat snake in your photo. Of course I'm not getting the best look of it, and I wasn't there to see it in person, but the snake sure does look like a black racer.

Consider these diagnostic features that I personally use, although I admit they may not be valid outside of Virginia where I live. The first thing that clued me in that something was different was the large rostral scale. It is larger and considerably more pointed at the top than a typical black rat's. In addition, there is a lack of bold stripes on the edges of the upper labial scales, there appears to be a lack of keeled scales on the neck, the iris of the snake appears to be dark like a racer, and there is a strong "eyebrow ridge" (don't know the technical term) that is typical of a racer than a black rat. Consider the pictures linked below...

Black rat
http://www.pbase.com/rcm1840/image/43914116

Black racer
http://www.cortland.edu/herp/keys/images/snakes/cconstlg.jpg

Neither one of them are the best of photos, but they were best I could come up with without going through the hassle of uploading my own.

Confusing the two species is easy to do, even for experienced eyes. When I was doing a Google image search for black rafts, I frequently came upon black racers that were mislabeled, even on some seemingly legitimate web sites!

bradtort, please post back with additional photos.
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Virginia Herping
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VaHS
Virginia Herpetological Society online store
http://www.cafepress.com/vaherpsociety

"The irrational fear of snakes is the only excuse a grown man has... to act like a complete sissy" - Colchicine

You may be right.

I'm not a snake person. I was looking for lizards and turtles that day, and just lucked out on this one.

Great photo for sure!! What a neat situation to happen upon. I once caught a baby black rat swallowing a fuzzy mouse buried amongst some ivy in my back yard. I only noticed the event because the fuzzy was squeaking so loud.

I would say it's a black racer as well. The "dragon eyes" arch from the top of the eye to the nose is what does it for me. I've always felt the racers have an angry look about them, and a black rat has a more relaxed looking face.

Any more pictures from the interaction?
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

I can't tell you exactly why, but that snake looks like an obsoleta to me, not a racer.

That is a great shot, but makes me wonder. Will the babies stay attached all the way into the snake's mouth? I guess the mother is dead already. It's too bad the babies scampered, I would love to know what happened next!
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

>>
>>That is a great shot, but makes me wonder. Will the babies stay attached all the way into the snake's mouth? I guess the mother is dead already. It's too bad the babies scampered, I would love to know what happened next!
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I saw one baby run off. The other was still attached as the snake slithered off into the weeds. So who knows what happened next?

Not that Im a wuss, but that has to be one of the sadest shots I have seen.

Great shot tho.