These snakes are active from late March to November at air temperatures of 60-88☏. Along the western edge of its range, it frequents the wooded areas of streams and rivers. The Western Ratsnake generally inhabits forested areas, particularly the rocky hillsides of open woodlands. Gloyd (1928) and Fitch (1956, 1958, 1963) studied this snake in eastern Kansas, and much of the information available is from their observations. Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.Ĭounty Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):Īllen (18) Anderson (8) Atchison (10) Barber (21) Barton (1) Bourbon (33) Brown (7) Butler (33) Chase (6) Chautauqua (6) Cherokee (62) Clay (5) Cloud (5) Coffey (2) Comanche (1) Cowley (14) Crawford (38) Dickinson (13) Doniphan (18) Douglas (182) Elk (8) Ellsworth (6) Finney (1) Franklin (55) Geary (14) Greenwood (24) Harper (19) Harvey (8) Jackson (3) Jefferson (25) Johnson (75) Kingman (8) Kiowa (1) Labette (30) Leavenworth (21) Lincoln (4) Linn (25) Lyon (8) Marion (5) Marshall (20) McPherson (6) Meade (1) Miami (19) Mitchell (1) Montgomery (12) Morris (3) Nemaha (1) Neosho (10) Osage (6) Ottawa (3) Pottawatomie (27) Pratt (2) Reno (11) Republic (2) Rice (1) Riley (38) Rooks (1) Russell (2) Saline (15) Sedgwick (87) Shawnee (38) Sherman (1) Stafford (1) Sumner (22) Unknown (19) Wabaunsee (5) Washington (8) Wilson (9) Woodson (7) Wyandotte (15) The maximum length throughout the range is 218.4 cm (8549⁄50 inches) (Boundy, 1995 Powell et al., 2016). The largest specimen from Kansas is a male (KU 216168) from Jefferson County with a total length of 191.2 cm (751⁄8 inches) and a weight of 1,729 grams (3 pounds, 13 ounces), collected by Roger Christie on 9 July 1990. In many adults, bright red and/or white pigments can be seen between the black scales.Īdults normally grow 106.7-183.0 cm (42-72 inches) in total length. The chin (and ventral edges of the upper labials) is white to cream and the belly is cream to yellowish with many gray to dark-brown diffuse squarish blotches. Adults often have extensive red and white (sometimes yellow) colored skin between the scales. The degree of dorsal darkening varies from completely black individuals throughout most of the state to faintly blotched specimens in south-central Kansas (Miller, 1986, Irwin et al., 1992). Western Ratsnakes have keeled scaled and a divided anal scale. Young Western Ratsnakes begin to darken appreciably (obfuscating their juvenile pattern) in their third year. A dark brown back band crosses the top of the head in front of the eyes and extends back through the eyes to the rear upper labials on each side. The edges of the blotches are not darker than their centers. The blotches are squarish and often have small projections toward the head and the tail from each corner. Juveniles: Have longitudinal dark brown blotches on a light gray background. ![]() Adult males have slightly longer tails and grow larger than females. Young specimens are patterned and colored like Great Plains Ratsnakes, but they lose this pattern as they grow older. The belly is cream or yellow-white, with large indistinct darker areas. Some adult specimens exhibit an indistinct pattern of dark blotches, and those in south central Kansas may be distinctly blotched. One of the largest snakes in Kansas, the Western Ratsnake is characterized by keeled scales, a divided anal scale, and a generally uniform dark brown or black color on the head, body, and tail.
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