The Mona Lisa of Snakes
In praise of the common gray rat snake
I must have seen five gray rat snakes this week. That’s good; they are one of my favorites. It’s common knowledge that these snakes are beneficial. They keep the rodent populations down and pose no threat to humans or our pets, except maybe the chicken owners (again) who might lose a few eggs to these opportunistic carnivores. Regardless, folks have negative feelings about all snakes. To know me is to love me, they say, so let’s get to know one of my favorite serpents.
What exactly is a rat snake? It’s complicated. You know those herpetologists, always embroiled in controversy over this and that. There are over 45 species of rat snakes who were all comfortably categorized in various taxa, or taxonomic groups, until 2002 when along came new DNA analysis of the North American rat snakes. This caused a great brouhaha among herpetologists. They shook their fists and rattled their whiskey glasses while grumbling over how to make sense of these findings. I think the science is settled now, placing all the North American rat snakes in the genus Pantherophis, “panther snake,” which includes eight living species. Herp friends, feel free to chime in.
Here in the southeast USA we have two species among us: gray rat snakes and corn snakes. While corn snakes are more popular due to their spectacular…
