Gopher Snake
Pituophis catenifer • Order: Squamata, Suborder: Serpentes, Family: Colubridae, Subfamily: Colubrinae, Genus: Pituophis, Species: P. catenifer
Western and central North America, extending from southwestern Canada down through the western United States into northern Mexico.
Look up Gopher Snake in the Snake Encyclopedia →Family
Order: Squamata, Suborder: Serpentes, Family: Colubridae, Subfamily: Colubrinae, Genus: Pituophis, Species: P. catenifer
Conservation
IUCN Red List status is Least Concern, though localized populations face threats from habitat fragmentation, road mortality, and intentional killing.
Physical Description
Features a light yellowish or tan background color marked with dark brown, black, or reddish-brown blotches along the back and smaller spots on the sides. The head is slightly distinct from the neck with a dark bar across the eyes. Scales are keeled.
Size & Dimensions
This specimen appears to be a juvenile, approximately 12 to 18 inches in length. Adults typically range from 36 to 72 inches, with exceptional individuals growing even larger.
Habitat
Found in a diverse range of habitats including deserts, prairies, scrublands, brush, coniferous forests, and agricultural fields, from sea level up to elevations of around 9,000 feet.
Diet & Feeding
Preys primarily on small mammals, birds, bird eggs, and occasionally lizards. It is an active forager that often investigates burrows and subdues its prey through constriction.
Reproduction
Oviparous species that mates in the spring. Females lay clutches typically ranging from 3 to 24 eggs in underground burrows or beneath rocks and logs during early summer.
Look-alikes
Frequently confused with rattlesnakes due to its similar coloration, patterned dorsal blotches, and defensive behavior of vibrating its tail and hissing loudly. Can be distinguished by the lack of a rattle on the tail and a round pupil rather than a vertical slit.
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List status is Least Concern, though localized populations face threats from habitat fragmentation, road mortality, and intentional killing.
Cultural Significance
Highly beneficial to agriculture and human settlements due to its voracious appetite for rodent pests, making it an important ecological controller of small mammal populations.
Notable Features
Known for an impressive defensive display that mimics a rattlesnake, including flattening its head into a triangular shape, hissing loudly by forcing air through a specialized epiglottal tracheal larynx, and vibrating its tail rapidly against dry leaves.