Range in California: Red
Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies
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| Adult, Inyo County desert |
Adult, Riverside County desert |
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| Adult, coastal Riverside County |
Adult, coastal San Diego County © Linda Morgan |
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Adult, San Bernardino County
Photos by Patrick H. Briggs, courtesy Tom Moisi |
Adult, Kern County desert
© Brad Alexander |
Adult, coastal Los Angeles County
© Gregory Litiatco |
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| Adult, coastal Riverside County |
Underside of adult, Tehachapi mountins, Kern County © Todd Battey |
Juvenile, San Diego County |
Adult with a lot of black on the front, San Diego County. © TexturePop.com |
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This adult racer was photographed for about 20 minutes as it poked its head in and out then slowly emerged from a hole barely larger than itself in San Diego County
© Douglas S. Brown |
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| Adult, San Diego County near the Orange County border © Stacy Schenkel |
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| Adult, San Diego County near the Orange County border © Stacy Schenkel |
This juvenile snake, about 15 inches in length, wandered into a house in Orange County. © Kiahna Garcia |
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| Red Racers From Outside California |
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| Adult, Yuma County, Arizona |
Tracks on a sandy road.
A large racer crossed part of this road in Arizona. When I startled the snake, it quickly doubled back the way it came.
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Adult, Nye County, Nevada
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| Breeding Behavior |
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Two Red Racers mating in late May in Orange County. © Mark Pugs
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| Feeding |
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Adult Red Racer eating a San Diego Alligator Lizard, Ventura County.
© Samantha Zahringer.
Samantha Zahringer watched this coachwhip eat the lizard by her back door. Her kids saw the snake raise its neck, sway for a moment, then strike quickly. Two other lizards nearby froze while the snake swallowed. When the snake finished, the lizards finally moved away.
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Though they are not mainly snake-eaters, Red Racers will eat whatever they can find and overpower, including snakes. Darrel Roberts found this one eating a young Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake in his Phoenix driveway one morning. © Darrel Roberts |
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Jay Snow took this series (left to right, top to bottom) of a Red Racer trying to eat a live Southern Desert Horned Lizard over a period of 44 minutes. The snake failed to swallow the lizard and crawled away. In the last picture you can see that the lizard lay prone for several minutes after the coachwhip left then took up to 15 minutes to clean the saliva off its face before slowly walking away, no doubt thankful for the row of horns behind its head.
© Jay Snow
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Coachwhips are excellent climbers. This large adult is eating a
dove high in a tree in Maricopa County, Arizona. © Darrell Roberts |
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| Plastic Landscaping Netting Can Be Hazardous to Snakes |
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This Red Racer was found dead, entagled in mesh laid on the ground as part of an abandoned landscaping project on a highway in Palmdale, Los Angeles County.
© Paul J. Burke
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| Habitat |
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| Habitat, coastal Riverside County |
Habitat, San Diego County desert riparian |
Habitat, early spring, San Gorgonio Pass desert, Riverside County |
Habitat, Inyo County desert |
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| Habitat, San Bernardino County desert |
Habitat, Riverside County desert |
Habitat, San Diego County desert |
Habitat, desert flats, Kern County |
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Habitat, Los Angeles County desert
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Habitat, desert on the CA Border,
Nye County, Nevada
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| Short Videos |
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I saw this Red Racer foraging in the desert in San Diego County before it saw me. After turning around in my direction, it saw me, raised its head off the ground in a state of alert, wiggled its neck back and forth while holding its head still, then turned around and raced away over the rocks into a bush.
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A juvenile Red Racer ready to shed its skin is found under a board in Riverside County then races away into the grass. |
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| Description |
Not Dangerous (Non-poisonous) - This snake does not have venom that is dangerous to most humans.
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| Size |
Adults of this species are 36 - 102 inches long (91 - 260 cm.)
Hatchlings are about 13 inches long.
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| Appearance |
A slender fast-moving snake with smooth scales, a large head and eyes, a thin neck, and a long thin tail.
Large scales above the eyes.
17 scale rows at mid body.
The braided appearance of scales on the tail (like a whip) gives this snake its common name.
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| Color and Pattern |
Coloration is variable; light brown, pink or reddish above with pink, brown, or black bands across the neck.
Black and yellow phases of this subspecies are found outside of California.
The dark coloring is interspersed with light coloring creating a banded or saddled appearance, with dark coloring surrounding the light scales.
Color typically changes to a solid tan or reddish coloring along the length of the long thin tail.
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| Life History and Behavior |
Activity |
Active in the daytime.
Good climbers, able to climb bushes and trees.
Seen moving quickly even on hot sunny days, but often seen basking on roads in early morning or resting underneath boards or other surface objects.
Frequently run over by vehicles and found dead on the road, partly due to the tendency of this snake to stop and eat small road-killed animals.
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| Defense |
| Often strikes agressively when threatened or handled. |
| Diet and Feeding |
Eats small mammals including bats, nestling and adult birds, bird eggs, lizards, snakes, amphibians, and carrion. Hatchlings and juveniles will eat large invertebrates.
An adult Red Racer was observed swallowing the head and neck of a live Southern Pacific Rattlesnake that it had pinned to the ground with its body.
(Herpetological Review 45 2 2014)
Hunts crawling with head the held high above the ground, occasionally moving it from side to side. The prey is overcome and crushed with the jaws or beneath loops of the body and eaten without constriction. (I was told that one was seen jumping about 3 feet in the air after a bird.) |
| Breeding |
Lays eggs in early summer. Eggs hatch in 45 - 70 days.
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| Habitat |
Inhabits open areas of desert, grassland, scrub, and sagebrush, including rocky, sandy, flat, and hilly ground. Avoids dense vegetation.
Takes refuge in rodent burrows, under shaded vegetation, and under surface objects.
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| Geographical Range |
This subspecies, Coluber flagellum piceus - Red Racer, is found throughout southern California from Ventura county to the Baja California border and north around the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains though the Great Basin desert into northwestern Nevada, and south through Nevada and much of Arizona to part of Sonora and Baja California. It apparently intergrades with C. f. rudocki in eastern Kem County.
The species Coluber flagellum - Coachwhip, occurs very widely across the southern half of the U.S. from southern California east to Florida, and far south into Mexico, including northeast Baja California.
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| Notes on Taxonomy |
North American snakes formerly placed in the genus Masticophis have been changed to the genus Coluber based on a 2004 paper * by Nagy et al. Utiger et al. (2005, Russian Journal of Herpetology 12:39-60) supported Nagy et al. and synonymized Masticophis with Coluber. This has not been universally accepted. The most recent SSAR list has hinted that the genus Masticophis might be re-instated: "Burbrink (pers. comm.) has data to reject Nagy et al.’s hypothesis but we await publication of these data before reconsidering the status of Masticophis."
Five or six subspecies of Coluber flagellum are recognized. Only two occur in California, including the San Joaquin Coachwhip - C. f. ruddocki (or three by those who recognize the Baja Coachwhip - Coluber fuliginosus to be a subspecies of C. flagellum - C. f. fuliginosus.)
Alternate and Previous Names (Synonyms)
Coluber flagellum piceus (Nagy et al 2004)
Masticophis flagellum piceus - Red Racer (Stebbins 2003, 2012)
Masticophis flagellum piceus - Red Coachwhip (Red Racer) (Stebbins 1985)
Masticophis flagellum piceus - Red Racer (Wright & Wright 1957, Stebbins 1966)
Masticophis flagellum piceus - ssp. of Common Whipsnake (Stebbins 1954)
Masticophis flagellum piceus - Western Whip Snake (Van Denburgh 1897)
Masticophis flagellum piceus (Cope 1892)
Masticophis flagellum (Shaw 1802)
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None |
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| Taxonomy |
| Family |
Colubridae |
Colubrids |
Oppel, 1811 |
| Genus |
Coluber |
North American Racers, Coachwhips and Whipsnakes |
Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Species |
flagellum |
Coachwhip |
Shaw, 1802 |
Subspecies
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piceus |
Red Racer (or Red Coachwhip) |
(Cope, 1892) |
| Original Description |
Masticophis flagellum - (Shaw, 1802) - Gen. Zool., Vol. 3, p. 475
Masticophis flagellum piceus - (Cope, 1892) - Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., Vol. 14, p. 625
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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| Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Coluber - Latin - coluber snake or serpent
flagellum - Latin - whip - refers to the body shape and braided look of tail
piceus - Latin - pitch black - refers to the black morph of subspecies
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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| Alternate Names |
Red Coachwhip
Masticophis flagellum piceus
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| Related or Similar California Snakes |
C. f. ruddocki - San Joaquin Coachwhip
C. fuliginosus - Baja California Coachwhip
S. h. hexalepis - Desert Patch-nosed Snake
S. h. mojavensis - Mohave Patch-nosed Snake
S. h. virgultea - Coast Patch-nosed Snake
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| More Information and References |
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
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, 1957.
* Z. T. Nagy, Robin Lawson, U. Joger and M. Wink. Molecular systematics of Racers, Whipsnakes and relatives (Reptilia: Colubridae) using Mitochondrial and Nuclear Markers. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research (Volume 42 pages 223–233). 2004
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| Conservation Status |
The following status listings are copied from the 2017 Special Animals List and the 2017 Endangered and Threatened Animals List which are published by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
If no status is listed here, the animal is not included on either CDFW list. This most likely indicates that there are no serious conservation concerns for the animal. To find out more about an animal's status, you can go to the NatureServe and IUCN websites to check their rankings.
Check here to see the most current complete lists.
This snake is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| NatureServe Global Ranking |
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| NatureServe State Ranking |
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
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| California Department of Fish and Wildlife |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
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| USDA Forest Service |
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| IUCN |
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