A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Snake Behavior and Natural History

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Defense	Feeding	Snake Movement	Reproduction	Male Combat
Snake Noses	Snake Tails	Snake Eyes	Miscellany	Tracks

These are pictures and videos that illustrate some of the interesting behaviors of some of the snakes shown on this web site. (Not all interesting snake behaviors are shown here, only those from this site. More will be added here as they are added to the site.) Follow the links on the name of each species to find more pictures and information about it.
Miscellaneous Snake Observations

During winter, many snakes stay underground or deep in rock cracks, where the temperature is warmer than it is outside. They do not eat or move around much during this time. Some snakes overwinter in large groups. The giant snake dens in Narcisse, Maitoba, Canada are even tourist attractions. Here you can see a mass of Wandering Gartersnakes and Valley Gartersnakes as they emerge from their den in early May in Wyoming. © Leslie Schreiber	Great Basin Rattlesnakes have been seen for at least 20 years at this den site in Nevada. It is important not to give out the location of rattlesnake den sites indiscriminately, because the snakes are vulnerable to attack or collection when they are gathered around the den. © Tom Green - TomGreenPhotography.com		This juvenile Northern Mohave Rattlesnake was spotted resting, avoiding the daytime heat, inside a small animal burrow under a desert shrub.

I saw the Red Coachwhip in this video crawling around before it saw me. After turning around to move my direction, it became aware of me, raising its head off the ground in a state of alert, and wiggled its neck back and forth rapidly, while holding its head still, then turned around and raced away over the rocks into a bush. I don't know what the neck movement was about, but maybe it was meant to make the snake look more threatening.	During the winter in the state of Rajasthan, India, when it can get very cold and foggy, Indian Rock Pythons retreat underground into large porcupine burrows. When the sun emerges on winter afternoons, they often move up to the mouth of the burrow to warm up in the sun, as seen here. They also emerge completely from the hole and bask in the sunlight with their bodies stretched out near the mouth of the burrow.	Most snakes are good swimmers and good climbers. This Green Ratsnake is climbing straight up the bark of a tree.	Rattlesnakes are often depicted in fiction as aggressors, leaping and striking viciously, often for no reason other than to give the hero an excuse to kill it to prove himself. The truth is that rattlesnakes are almost always defensive, not offensive, when they encounter humans, wanting nothing more than to escape, and the least heroic thing someone can do is to automatically kill them. The Northern Pacific Rattlesnake in this video is seen slowly following a snake hook with curiosity, not aggression. The hook had been used earlier to pick up a breeding pair of snakes, and we decided that this one was probably a male that smelled the scent of the breeding female on the hook.

This video shows how a snake uses its long forked tongue to sense its surroundings. (The snake shown here is a San Diego Gopher Snake.)	This dead juvenile Pacific Gopher Snake was found in Sutter County. It appears to have a leg, but on closer inspection, it is the leg of what is probably an alligator lizard that broke through the snake's side after the snake swallowed it. © Kevin Bryant
Snake Movement

This video shows the sidewinding locomotion of a Mohave Desert Sidewinder.	This video shows the slow, deliberate movement of a Red-diamond Rattlesnake as it crawls across rocks and ground in the desert at night. At one point, it continually raises up as if it is attempting to crawl higer, but it is on top of the boulder with nowhere to go.	This video shows a large San Diego Gopher Snake moving quickly, keeping its body nearly straight.	Most snakes can swim. Some species spend much of their time in the water hunting for frogs and fish. This video shows Oregon Gartersnakes basking and swimming.

This video shows the rapid movement of a long, thin San Joaquin Coachwhip.	This video shows the rapid "Lateral Progression" movement of a Mohave Shovel-nosed Snake.	A Colorado Desert Sidewinder found on a road at night rattles and sidewinds.	Most snakes are good swimmers. In this video, a California red-sided gartersnake swims around in a small pond after I scared it from its basking spot on the shore.
Snake Tracks and Signs

Something big crossed here...	California Kingsnake Tracks	San Diego Gophersnake Tracks	Southern Pacific Rattlesnake Tracks

Mojave Sidewinder Tracks	San Diego Gophersnake Tracks	A big Coachwhip...	Patch-nosed Snake Tracks

Western Yellow-bellied Racer Tracks	Something big...	Shovel-nosed Snake Tracks	Could have been a gopher snake...

Shed snake skin	Ground Snake shed	Ground Snake shed	Garter Snake shed

Rio Grande Valley shed

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