Range in California: Red
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Adult, Inyo County |
Adult, Riverside County desert |
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Adult, Coastal Riverside County |
Adult, Riverside County |
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Adult, Nye County, Nevada |
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Adult, Yuma County, Arizona |
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| Adult with a lot of black on the front, San Diego County. © TexturePop.com |
Underside of adult, Tehachapi mountins, Kern County © Todd Battey |
Adult, Nye County, Nevada |
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Juvenile, San Diego County |
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Adult 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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Tracks on a sandy road.
A large coachwhip crossed part of this road when I startled it, and it quickly doubled back the way it came. |
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| Two Red Racers mating in late May in Orange County. © Mark Pugs |
Though they are not solely 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 |
Habitat |
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Habitat, coastal Riverside County |
Habitat, Inyo County |
Habitat, Nye County,
Nevada at the CA Border
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Habitat, San Bernardino County |
Habitat, Riverside County desert |
Habitat, San Diego County desert |
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Habitat, San Diego County desert riparian |
Habitat, Kern County |
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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 became aware of 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 racer ready to shed its skin is found under a board in Riverside County, and races away into the grass. |
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| Description |
Nonvenomous |
| Considered harmless to humans. |
| Size |
| Adults of this species are 36 - 102 inches long (91 - 260 cm.) Hatchlings are about 13 inches long. |
| Appearance |
| A slender fast-moving snake with smooth scales, a large head and eyes, and a thin neck. Large scales above eyes. 17 scale rows at mid body. 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. The braided appearance of scales on the tail (like a whip) gives this snake its common name. |
| Behavior |
| Active in the daytime. 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. Often strikes agressively when threatened or handled. 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 road-killed small animals. |
| Diet |
| Eats small mammals including bats, nestling and adult birds, bird eggs, lizards, snakes, amphibians, and carrion. Hatchlings and juveniles will eat large invertebrates. |
| Reproduction |
| Lays eggs in early summer. Eggs hatch in 45 - 70 days. |
| 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 Baja California, and mainland Mexico.
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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. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
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.)
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None. |
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| Taxonomy |
| Family |
Colubridae |
Colubrids |
| Genus |
Coluber |
North American Racers, Coachwhips and Whipsnakes |
| Species |
flagellum |
Coachwhip |
Subspecies
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piceus |
Red Racer (or Red Coachwhip) |
| 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 |
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.
* 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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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.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Wildlife |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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