Rat and Corn Snakes
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This page contains my photos of rat snakes and corn snakes from Florida and Georgia.
This page last updated 25 Jan 2008 Snakes Home |
I lived in south Florida from July 2000 until June 2003 after having lived mainly
in Chicago.
On 10 June 2003 I moved from Homestead Florida to Valdosta Georgia.
I am fascinated by all the wildlife in the SE USA, so I have been taking lots of
photos and putting them up on my website.
Photos were taken with Pentax Spotmatic or Spotmatic II.
This website developed by Tom Spinker
Copyright © 2000 - 2008
All Rights Reserved. |
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The naming convention for the Rat Snakes is under discussion. (Both the common names and
the scientific names are unsettled.)
You might see the genus as Pantherophis rather than Elaphe.
The species name for the corn snake is guttata. The species name for the Black Rat Snake, Yellow Rat Snake, and Gray Rat Snake is either obsoleta or alleghaniensis. Refer to the Center for North American Herpetology website for the current naming convention. The Corn Snake, Elaphe guttata, is found in the SE USA from North Carolina to Louisiana including all of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. The Yellow Rat Snake is found in peninsular Florida and along the Atlantic Coast as far north as North Carolina. The Gray Rat Snake is found in south Georgia, the Florida panhandle, Mississippi, and Alabama and north along Mississippi River into Kentucky. The range of the Black Rat Snake extends from north Georgia northward into New York and westward into Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa. (range info taken from Alan Tennant's Snakes of North America Eastern and Central Regions) |
19 Feb 2001 -- 12:00 noon --
135mm lens on
helicoid, flash
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The snake was stretched-out on a graded limestone road when I came along on my bicycle. Snake was maybe 36" in length. Photo taken within half mile of Atlantic Ocean, east of Homestead Air Force Reserve Base. This snake let me take one photo and departed rather casually. |
Corn Snakes are also known as Red Rat Snakes. |
| I spotted this snake while driving at night. It let me take several photos from all angles. This snake was maybe 30" in length. I chased it off the road when I was finished. |
25 July 2001 -- Outside Everglades National Park -- About 8:40pm --
Photo taken with 135mm lens on helicoid, flash
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The Great Plains Rat Snake, which I photographed in Texas on 17 May 2002, use to be considered a subspecies of the Corn Snake. Now it is viewed as a separate species. |
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I found this snake as I bicycled on Snake Bight Trail in Everglades National Park. Snake Bight Trail is near the south end of Everglades National Park. It is about two miles long; it ends at the ocean where there is a short boardwalk over a mud beach. |
 13 Dec 2001 -- 12:56pm -- 135mm lens on helicoid, flash |
7 April 2002 -- 8:27pm --
Quiet road south of Florida City, Florida.
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This is a juvenile yellow rat snake. As juveniles the pattern looks much like a corn
snake. The blotches are replaced by stripes as the snake matures.
Photo was taken in the evening when I was driving my car looking for snakes on the road. |
This is a very large snake. More than four-feet long and fat. Snake was calm, but casually slithered away when I approached to about three feet. This was taken during the day when I was bicycling on a path paralleling a canal. |
Photo taken
7 May 2001 along Canal L31W, north of highway 9336
just outside Everglades National Park at 11:30am
with 135mm lens on helicoid in bright sunshine.
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Gray Rat Snake
Elaphe obsoleta
At least along the east coast,
Gray Rat Snakes, Yellow Rat Snakes, Black Rat Snakes are variations of the same species. The next three photos are of the same snake. I took them on 19 April 2005 at Reed Bingham State Park near Adel Georgia at about 11:45am. Camera is Pentax Spotmatic II, 100mm macro lens, flash, Sensia 200 film. |
Big (76k)
Huge (106k)
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| Following is a very young Gray Rat Snake. |
I took the photo on 6 May 2004 at about 1:00pm at the NE city limits of Valdosta, Georgia. |
| The next five photos are Yellow Rat Snakes from south Florida (USA) |
| Click upon the words "Big" or "Huge" to see large version of photo and use BACK to return. |
Wagon Wheel Road in Big Cypress Swamp |
 Head shot of juvenile Yellow Rat Snake 22 April 2002 --- 9:28pm Loop Road in Big Cypress Swamp Big 48k Huge 148k |
The next three photos are of the same Yellow Rat Snake.
Taken at Matheson Hammock Park (on Atlantic Ocean south of Miami)
on 16 Nov 2004 at about 1:00pm with a 100mm macro lens on a Vivitar 220SL camera.
I found the snake climbing in a Ficus Tree in a manicured section of the park. (There are lots of undeveloped, natural areas in the park.) Rat snakes are incredible climbers. They seem to magically stick to the sides of trees. I have seen photos of rat snakes climbing right up a brick wall. Snake is about three feet long. While I was photographing him, he came to the ground. When I finished the roll of film, I walked away leaving the snake on the ground next to the tree as shown in the third photo. The park is not very crowded. This was on a Tuesday. There were a few people walking around and an occasional jogger. Rat snakes are usually very calm. Even during daylight hours, these snakes often remain stationary and allow me to take several photos. Then they casually slither away. This one seemed completely acclimated to humans. |
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Rat Snakes Page Two More photos of Rat Snakes. |
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