Here's some wild Black Rats from over the past few years. They are my favorite snake. They are the only really large non-venomous snake in the northeast and they're not terribly common in northeast Ohio where I live.
A Snake Road (S. Illinois) example from October of last year:
I was in Central Ohio with a group of high school students in May of last year, when I caught my largest snake ever in the field. This Black Rat was just short of six feet:
Unfortunately it was kind of beat up and skinny.
A Snake Road 2010 edition. This one has a maroon tint.
A 2009 central Ohio version:
Here's one form Ohio in 2006 doing the "stand up and fight" thing:
Tim
Third Eye
