A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Coluber constrictor mormon - Western Yellow-bellied Racer

= Coluber mormon - Western Yellow-bellied Racer

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Range in California: Red

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Adult, Yuba County

Adult, Sonoma County

Adult, Tule Lake, Siskiyou County

Adult, San Mateo County

Adult, San Luis Obispo County
© Andrew Harmer

Adult, in shedding phase, Sutter County

Adult, San Mateo County

Adult, Yakima County, Washington

Adult, Tulare County © Patrick Briggs

A pair of breeding adult racers in a Contra Costa County back yard. © Cheryl Haga

Adult, Yolo County. Dave Feliz

Adult, Lassen County © Loren Prins

Adult, El Dorado County. © Richard Porter

Adult with reddish coloring, El Dorado County. © Richard Porter

Adult, Del Norte County.
© Alan D. Barron

Adult, Santa Cruz Island © Luke Caldwell

Adult crossing a road in late afternoon, Modoc Plateau, Siskiyou County

Tracks, Sutter County

Juveniles

Juvenile, Modoc County

Juvenile, Kern County
© Brad Alexander

Juvenile, Contra Costa County

Juvenile 1, San Mateo County

Juvenile 2, San Mateo County

Juvenile 3 San Mateo County

Juvenile, Del Norte County.
© Alan D. Barron

Juvenile, Butte County
© Jackson Shedd

Juvenile, Butte County
© Rodney Lacey

Habitat

Habitat, Modoc County

Habitat, Marin County

Habitat, San Mateo County

Habitat, Tuolumne County

Habitat, 4,000 ft., Siskiyou County

Habitat, Glenn County

Habitat, Sutter County

Short Videos

A large adult racer in bad need of a shed on the crawl in the Sacramento Valley.

A little blotched juvenile racer strikes and crawls away defensively in the Modoc County Great Basin Desert.

A juvenile racer found under a rock in late January in Contra Costa County.

Description

Nonvenomous

Considered harmless to humans.

Size

Adults are 20-75 inches long (51-190 cm), typically under 3 feet long. Hatchlings are 8 - 11 inches long.

Appearance

Slender with large eyes, a broad head and a slender neck, smooth scales, and a long thin tail. Plain brown, blue-grey, or olive-green to green above and unmarked off-white or yellowish below. Young with dark blotches on sides and saddled markings on the back. At one time juveniles were thought to be a different species from the adults due to the difference in appearance.

Behavior

Active in daylight. Mainly terrestrial, but also a good climber. Moves very quickly. Hunts crawling with head held high off the ground, sometimes moving it from side to side. Prey is killed by being quickly overcome and captured, crushed with the jaws or trapped under the body, and swallowed alive. Despite the species name, it is not a constrictor. Often bites agressively. Can be found at denning sites along with other species of snakes.

Diet

Eats lizards, small mammals, birds, eggs, snakes, small turtles and frogs, and large insects.

Reproduction

Lays eggs in early summer.

Range

This subspecies, Coluber constrictor mormon - Western Yellow-bellied Racer, is found throughout most of california north and west of the Sierras, and south along the coast to the Baja California border, from sea level to around 7,000 ft. elevation.It is also found on Santa Cruz Island.

Outside of California the subspecies continues north through Oregon and eastern Washington into British Columbia, Canada, and east through parts of Idaho, Montana, and Utah into western Colorado, with some isolated populations in eastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico.

The species Coluber constrictor - North American Racer, is very wide-ranging, occuring from the Pacific Coast all the way south to Guatemala and east to the Atlantic coast.

Habitat

Prefers open areas with sunny exposure - meadows, grassland, sagebrush flats, brushy chaparral, woodlands, riparian areas such as pond edges, and forest openings. Found in arid and moist habitats, but not usually found in deserts or high mountains.

Taxonomic Notes

Coluber constrictor consists of 11 subspecies, but some herpetologists consider C. c. mormon to be a full species, Coluber mormon.

According to the SSAR list "Burbrink et al. (in rev.) have demonstrated using mtDNA that C. constrictor may be composed of six independently evolving lineages not concordant with most recognized subspecies."

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

Common and abundant in much of its range, but absent from some areas along the south coast.

Taxonomy
Family	Colubridae	Colubrids
Genus	Coluber	North American Racers, Coachwhips and Whipsnakes
Species	constrictor	North American Racer
Subspecies	mormon	Western Yellow-bellied Racer
Original Description
Coluber mormon - Baird and Girard, 1852 - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 6, p. 70 from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Coluber - Latin - coluber snake or serpent constrictor - Latin - one that constricts - misnomer, genus does not constrict mormon - Mormon - "found by Capt. Howard Stansbury's party, in the valley of the Great Salt Lake" settled by Mormon religionists from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Alternate Names
Western Racer Western Yellowbelly Racer Mormon Racer Coluber mormon (full species)
Related or Similar California Snakes
M. f. ruddocki - San Joaquin Coachwhip M. f. piceus - Red Coachwhip P. c. annectens - San Diego Gophersnake P. c. catenifer - Pacific Gophersnake M. l. lateralis - California Striped Racer M. l. euryxanthus - Alameda Striped Racer
More Information and References
Natureserve Explorer California Dept. of Fish and Game Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012. Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972. Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998. Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Snakes of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009. Bartlett, R.D. , & Alan Tennant. Snakes of North America - Western Region. Gulf Publishing Co., 2000. Brown, Philip R. A Field Guide to Snakes of California. Gulf Publishing Co., 1997. Ernst, Carl H., Evelyn M. Ernst, & Robert M. Corker. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003. Wright, Albert Hazen & Anna Allen Wright. Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Cornell University Press.

Conservation Status
The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. This snake is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
Organization	Status Listing
U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA)	None
California Endangered Species Act (CESA)	None
California Department of Fish and Wildlife	None
Bureau of Land Management	None
USDA Forest Service	None
Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List

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