The Outdoor Journal by Kyle Carroll

This past week I noticed a few black snakes crossing the local gravel roads. When I had a friend mention the same phenomenon, I decided it was probably time to talk about black snakes in this column. The full name for the black snakes that we see here in northwest Missouri is Black Rat Snake or Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta. In the south east, the scientific name is a little more interesting. Pantherophis obsoleta is what it's known by down there.

The black snake is one of Missouri's largest and most commonly seen snakes.  The adults are black in color with the upper lip, chin and bottom side of the neck being white.

When we say large in this case we are talking about lengths. In our part of the world, black snakes commonly reach between four and six feet in length with a seven foot specimen being the largest ever recorded in Missouri.  According to field work done in eastern Kansas, black snakes are active when the air temperatures are between 60* to 88*.  This means black snakes are active in the daytime until hot weather sets in, then they become nocturnal. Their home range is usually about 25-30 acres with two or three snakes per acres being the normal population density.

According to The Amphibians and Reptiles of Missouri, “Black snakes eat a variety of rodents, small rabbits, bats, bird eggs, small birds and on occasion, lizards. ….The black rat snake is a forest dwelling species; it prefers rocky wooded hillsides or sections of woods along streams and rivers especially in the former prairie and savannah areas of Missouri.”

The section of the book on Habits and Habitat goes on to say, “ these snakes shelter in brush piles, hollow trees, farm buildings and old houses where there is often an abundance of mice. Black rat snakes are excellent climbers and often bask on horizontal branches in large trees. Their noted  ability to climb is one of the main reasons you should put snake guards on your bluebird boxes.

I guess I should look up over my head the next time I mow my yard, a black snake just might be watching.