Canis lupus hominis

This Black Rat Snake is about to shed its skin.

The snake I caught was a juvenile black rat snake. Young black rat snakes are born this mottled brown color (at least in my area). They gradually turn darker as they mature, eventually becoming almost totally black. Most still possess a white outline of where their spots once were.

This is also the longest snake in West Virginia. It is also the most common. You see them basking along roads in the summer months, and invevitably, someone with a pathological hatred of snakes swerves to run them over.

I’ve never feared snakes. I’ve always loved them. They are one of the most fascinating animals around.

Now, I said the juvenile did not try to bite me. My experience with the adults is the they will bite to defend themselves. They also do a threat display in which they coil up in a striking position. Their white throats turn as pale white as possible, and they shake the tips of their tails in the leaf litter, perhaps in imitation of a rattlesnake.

Now, some of the guesses said that this was either a corn snake or a milk snake.

Well, it can’t be a corn snake. This page will show you why. The records show that only one corn snake has ever been found in West Virginia. My location is Calhoun County, which is on the western side of the Alleghenies. Morgan County, where that record came from, is in the Eastern Panhandle– right outside the Beltway.

Now, we do have milk snakes here. However the West Virginia race of the Eastern milksnake has chestnut spots and a cream colored body. It is true that there are races of milk snake are coral snake mimics. However, we don’t have coral snakes here, and there would be no utility in evolving this mimicry.

However, the young black rat snakes are engaging in some mimicry, although their spotted coloration is good camouflage in the leaf litter. We have only two venomous snakes in West Virginia.

One is the timber rattlesnake. It is somewhat rare, but people run across them every once in a while. The rattlesnake is often very dark in color, and the adult rat snakes could be rattlesnake mimics when the shake their tails in the leaf litter. However, the black coloration of the rat snake and the dark color the rattlesnake is an adaptation for a cold-blooded snake that lives in a cool temperate forest. Darker bodies can absorbe heat more quickly, and this adaptation allow the snake to get warmed up faster and to retain that heat a little longer.

The other species of venomous snake is also a pit viper.  It is called the copperhead, although it’s not closely related to the Australian species with that name. It sometimes called the moccasin, which is a better name. Its closest relative is the water moccasin or cottonmouth, which, contrary to popular belief, isn’t found in West Virginia. It is found in Southeastern Virginia and Western Kentucky (and adjacent southern Indiana and Illinois). However, the water moccasin is better known in the subtropical South, where it is quite common in the swamps and bayous.

The northern copperhead looks like this:

The Northern copperhead is very similar to the juvenile rat snake in coloration.

Now compare this snake with the juvenile rat snake.

I should offer this warning. If you see a brown spotted snake in West Virginia– do not pick it up. It is very easy to misidentify the species, and someone could get bitten.

So how do I tell them apart?

Northern copperheads have v-shaped heads. Further, the backs of their heads are of a larger circumference than their necks. The copperhead has a distinctly pencil-necked appearance. All other species of snake that would look like have this appearance have a less distinctive neck and head.