Nature Note: the Black Rat Snake
By Josh Young

I like to call this species of critter the “A.K.A. snake.”

The reason I give it this name is because it is also known as the Cow Snake, Black Snake, Cow Sucker, Chicken Snake, Pilot Snake, Mountain Black Snake, Grey Rat Snake, Alleghany Black Snake, Scaly Black Snake, Rusty Black Snake, Tree Black Snake, and Pilot Black Snake.

To herpetologists the “A.K.A. snake” is also known as the Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta).

A possible reason for this species of snake to have so many nicknames is the frequency with which people encounter these snakes.

Black Rat Snakes are active during the day and tend to hang out (literally) around barns, storage buildings, and in trees where they search for their favorite foods. They are one of Kentucky’s largest snakes, sometimes reaching lengths of up to eight feet.

The average person who runs into a large black rat snake, on occasion, just might, maybe, overreact and have a small mental meltdown. These meltdowns tend to lead to dead snakes, heart attacks, and myths about this harmless critter.

The largest known specimen measured just over eight feet in length, not to shabby, but a mere worm snake when compared to the thirty foot Anacondas of South America. In Kentucky, these snakes are found statewide in many different habitats from swamps to woodlands and even on the farm.

Rat Snakes are not venomous snakes; they hug their prey to death. They have been known to feed on just about anything, but prefer small mammals, amphibians, birds and their eggs.

Rat snakes are egg layers and usually hatch during the late summer months of August and September. The juveniles have a grey coloration with dark blotches scattered along the body.

Within the first couple years of life the grey coloration begins to darken, and as adults these snakes have black body coloration, often with yellow to brownish patterns along the back and sides. Adults are great climbers, and are often seen in trees or the rafters of barns where they often leave behind tell tale shed skins.

Black Rat Snakes are completely harmless to humans, unless they have been smacked with a shovel in which case they will defend themselves by biting repeatedly. However, if they are left to go on their merry way they are a very beneficial species. Some farmers have even been known to keep “pet” Rat Snakes in their barns because the snakes are so good at keeping a “choke hold” on mice and rat populations.

Josh Young is a biologist with Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives