Elaphe obsoleta

The Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta) — also called pilot black snake or simply black snake — is a non-venomous colubrid species found in North America. It prefers heavily wooded areas and is known for having excellent climbing ability, including the ability to climb the trunk of large mature trees without the aid of branches. No subspecies are currently recognized.

Description

Adults can become quite large and are known to reach up to eight (8) feet, being the largest snake found in Canada. The record length is 101 inches (257 cm), making it (officially) the longest snake in North America. Unofficially, indigo snakes (Drymarchon corais) are known to exceed them, and one wild caught pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus) with a portion of its tail missing measured 111 inches (282 cm).

Behavior

When startled, they may freeze and wrinkle themselves into a series of kinks. If they feel further threatened, they may flee quickly or vibrate their tails in dead leaves (a form of mimicry, to make it sound like a rattlesnake). They are also capable of producing a foul smelling musk which they will release onto a predator if picked up. They spread the musk with their tail in hopes of deterring the threat.

Feeding

This species is a constrictor, meaning it suffocates its prey, coiling around small animals and tightening its grip until they can no longer draw breath, before eating them. Though they do consume mice and rats, the Black Rat Snakes will also hunt other snakes, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, and bird eggs.

Reproduction

The male snake wraps its tail around the female with their vents nearly touching. Males then erect their sex organ, the hemipenis, and insert it into the female sex organ, cloaca. The mating lasts about a few minutes or a few hours. The female lays about 12 to 20 eggs after five weeks and they hatch about 65 to 70 days later.

Taxonomy

Utiger et al. (2002) argued that North American Rat Snakes of the genus Elaphe are a monophyletic group and thus separate from Old World members of the genus. They therefore resurrected the available name Pantherophis Fitzinger for all North American taxa (north of Mexico). In addition, they change the spelling for the specific name to obsoletus.

Crother et al. (2003) rejected the taxonomic change to Pantherophis, preferring to retain the current concept of Elaphe and the spelling obsoleta.

Translation

The phrase "Elaphe obsoleta" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Spanish, French.

Translation(s) in other languages: Dutch: Rattenslang, Norwegian (Bokmål): Rottesnok, Polish: Wąż smugowy, Chinese: 德州鼠蛇.