Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Pantherophis obsoletus obsoletus
Black Rat Snake

Franklin Co., Missouri. Spring 1974

Here is a truly cosmopolitan snake; I have found them in bushes, trees, attics, junkyards, creekbeds, and backyards.  I have seen them on bluff faces, in open fields, and in deep woods.  After a warm summer thunderstorm I've found them out on the wet tarmac.  They hibernate in many places - underground, in rotting logs and standing hollow trees, in rock crevices and caves.  I once found an obsoletus coiled up next to several Osage Copperheads in a small cave in Missouri.

They climb rather well and apparently spend a great deal of time up in bushes and in trees, keeping them safe from predators and giving them access to birds and baby squirrels.

The standard black or bluish black ground color holds variable colors between the scales - white, orange, and sometimes a brilliant red.  The snake in the middle photo, from southern Illinois, shows a faint blotched pattern.  The juvenile in the bottom left photo indicates that quite a color transformation takes place!