Ronnie,

The last black rat I kept was cb from Columbus, MO locality parents. This snake was as mean as any Texas rat I've ever had. I did eventually get it tamed down enough to handle, but it would still usually nip me at least once for every handling session. You mentioned keeled scales, which this specimen also had - just as strongly as the average Texas rat. Being from MO, Burbrink would consider this snake to be obsoleta (Western rat snake - along with Texas rats), with two other 'species' of black/North American rat, allagheniensis (Eastern) and spiloides (midland). Maybe the western form of North American rat has keeled scales while the others don't? I have had other black rats that had smoother scales also. In other words, it seems possible that some wild populations of black rat might be more closely related to Texas rats than to black rats from other areas/regions.

-Toby Brock
-----
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

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• ID this snake - Redmoon, Wed Mar 12 23:22:29 2008
• RE: ID this snake - tspuckler, Thu Mar 13 07:10:40 2008
• RE: ID this snake - Redmoon, Thu Mar 13 12:06:50 2008
• RE: ID this snake - draybar, Thu Mar 13 15:36:53 2008
• RE: ID this snake - DMong, Thu Mar 13 16:43:10 2008
• thanks for responses . . . - Redmoon, Thu Mar 13 23:14:12 2008
• RE: thanks for responses . . . - tbrock, Fri Mar 14 06:54:24 2008
• yes, exactly........... - DMong, Fri Mar 14 08:33:02 2008
• yeah! . . . - Redmoon, Fri Mar 14 09:23:07 2008
• RE: yeah! . . . - DMong, Fri Mar 14 09:37:53 2008
• RE: thanks for responses . . . - DMong, Fri Mar 14 09:20:59 2008
• RE: thanks for responses . . . - Redmoon, Fri Mar 14 10:17:53 2008
• RE: thanks for responses . . . - DMong, Fri Mar 14 12:53:09 2008
• RE: thanks for responses . . . - hermanbronsgeest, Fri Mar 14 14:54:13 2008
• In all honesty............ - DMong, Fri Mar 14 16:11:39 2008
• I concur, as well . . . - Redmoon, Fri Mar 14 17:02:18 2008
• Exactly! - tbrock, Fri Mar 14 18:06:24 2008
• RE: ID this snake - tbrock, Thu Mar 13 17:44:01 2008
• RE: ID this snake - blueselaphe, Thu Mar 13 18:40:15 2008