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Project Noah Nature School
Coluber constrictus
Pasture near a pine forest
We found it in a pile of old fence posts - I took it inside just long enough to take pictures and then turned it back outside. ID by Ashley T.
Will always be glad to help, herps are what I'm studying right now and absolutely love them :) I've really wanted to see a buttermilk racer but I haven't been able to find one, they are such pretty snakes!
Okay, I'm glad to have found a nearby expert! I am trying to learn the snakes but I don't know if I will ever keep them straight. I just read Alan Tennant's description of Eastern racer habitat likes, and it fits where we found this young snake. And I didn't get any pictures, but I have seen a plain gray snake up there too, and now I am thinking that's an adult Eastern racer.
They are all subspecies of Coluber constrictor. The ones in our area are yellow-bellied, buttermilk, and tan (I live in Houston and am quite familiar with all the snakes here). To my knowledge the juveniles all look similar. But either way they are all the same species so it doesn't matter too much
Okay, I am looking at Werler and Dixon's Texas Snakes, and their distribution map shows a lot of specimens in my area, including 2 in my part of the county, and they also say that the Eastern Yellow-bellied racer doesn't occupy the pine forests of East Texas. So that's why I guessed Mexican racer. But I will go check the link now. Thanks!
Spotted on Jan 30, 2011
Submitted on Aug 15, 2014
+1
