Black Rat Snake Names

Common names for a black rat snake are pilot black snake, black snake. The scientific name for the Black Rat is Elaphe obsoleta. A non-venomous colubrid species found in North America. It prefers heavily wooded areas and they are known for having excellent climbing ability, including the ability to climb the trunk of large mature trees without the aid of branches. No subspecies are currently recognized.

Black Rat Snake

This black snake has a white chin and a black and white checkered abdomen.
Black Rat Snakes have different disigns and color cordination (White and Black).

Black Rat Snake Info

Utiger argued that North American Rat Snakes of the genus Elaphe are a monophyletic group and thus separate from Old World members of the genus. They therefore resurrected the available name Pantherophis Fitzinger for all North American taxa. In addition, they change the spelling for the specific name to obsoletus. Crother rejected the taxonomic change to pantherophis, preferring to retain the current concept of Elaphe.

Reproduction of the Black Rat Snake

The male snake wraps its tail around the female with their vents nearly touching. Males then erect their sex organ, hemipenes and insert it into the female sex organ. The mating lasts about a few minutes or a few hours. The female lays about 12 to 20 eggs after five weeks and they hatch about 65 and 70 days later.

Feeding the Black Rat Snake

This species is a constrictor, meaning it suffocates its prey, coiling around small animals and tightening its grip until they can no longer draw breath. Then they eat them. Though they do eat mice and rats. The Black Rat Snakes will also hunt other snakes, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, and bird eggs. Their favorite food is eggs, they eat the shell and all.

Black Rat Snake

Adults can become quite large and are known to reach up to eight feet, being the largest snake found in Canada. The record length is 101 inches, making it the longest snake in North America. Unofficially, indigo snakes are known to exceed them, and one wild caught pine snake with a portion of its tail missing measured 111 inches. When startled, they may freeze and wrinkle themselves into a series of kinks. If they feel further threatened, they may flee quickly or vibrate their tails in dead leaves a form of mimicry, to make it sound like a rattlesnake. The Black Snake is a quick interjetic reptile.