Young black rat snakes (first two years after hatching) are light gray with dark-brown or black markings. The belly is mottled with gray or checkered with black markings. You can usually see some white and sometimes red between the scales. These are shiny black snakes with white on the upper lip, chin and neck. Missourians often call them “black snakes,” but the name for this species is black rat snake. If you come across one of Missouri’s constrictors, give it a wide berth and the respect it deserves as a valuable component of Missouri’s wildlife. Their ability to locate and consume nests of destructive rats and mice before the young grow up to damage buildings, crops, stored grain and other foods makes these snakes important controllers of rodents. Like most species of native wildlife, Missouri’s constrictors play a role in the natural system of checks-and-balances. Because the victims aren’t able to get away or to inflict damage, the snakes usually just swallow them alive. A good example occurs when fox snakes or prairie kingsnakes come across a litter of baby deer mice or nestling birds. All of our constrictors vibrate their tail when alarmed as another defense measure.Ĭonstrictors don’t always use their suffocating grip to subdue prey. These snakes also try to defend themselves by emitting a strong, musky odor from glands at the base of their tail. Missouri’s constrictor snakes bite to defend themselves, but the bite is nonvenomous and usually little more than a scratch. It’s important to know that constriction is for killing prey rather than for defense. Before it dies, however, large prey can inflict a lot of damage on a snake or, as often happens, the prey’s struggles could free it. Snakes that don’t have this ability, such as water snakes or garter snakes, capture frogs, fish and rodents and hang on with their sharp, recurved teeth and start swallowing. It not only secures the prey, but it reduces the victim’s ability to hurt or damage the snake. There is much value to a snake in the ability to kill its prey before devouring it. This prevents the struggling deer mouse from breathing, and it quickly succumbs. For example, when a black rat snake grabs a deer mouse in its mouth, it rapidly wraps two or three coils of its body around the mouse and holds on, tightening whenever it can. Instead, they kill prey by suffocating it. They mainly eat rodents, birds and bird eggs, but kingsnakes also eat lizards and other species of snakes.Ĭonstrictors don’t crush their victims. Missouri’s constrictor snakes are all members of the “non-venomous” family, Colubridae. Other Missouri constrictors include the black rat snake, the western fox snake, the Great Plains rat snake, the bullsnake, the prairie kingsnake and the speckled kingsnake. Missouri’s red milk snake, for example, averages only 20 inches long. When we think of constrictors, we tend to think of those huge boa constrictors featured in movies or at zoos, but not all constrictor species are large snakes. Of the 46 kinds of snakes native to Missouri, seven are considered true constrictors. You don't have to travel to a tropical country or visit a large zoo to see snakes that tighten coils of their body around their prey until it is dead.
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