A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Pituophis catenifer catenifer - Pacific Gopher Snake

Click on a picture for a larger view

Range in California: Red

Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies

Listen to a Gopher Snake
hissing defensively

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Electronic Field Guide to the
Reptiles and Amphibians of
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Adult, Alameda County, eastern foothills of Coast Range.

Adult in defensive posture, coastal San Mateo County

Juvenile, Contra Costa County

Adult, Marin County

Adult, Yuba County, Sierra Nevada foothills.

Sub-adult, East Bay Hills,
Contra Costa County

Adult, Central Valley, Western Kern County

Adult, San Benito County mountains.

Adult, San Luis Obispo County

Adult, San Luis Obiso County

Juvenile, Kern Plateau, Kern County

Adult, Clear Lake, Lake County

Adult, Butte County
© Jackson Shedd

Hissing adult, Kings County
© Patrick Briggs

Adult, Marin County

Adult, Merced County.
© Jennifer Rycenga

Adult, Kings County © Patrick Briggs

This adult was found tightly squeezed into a small space beneath a rock in lower Kern Canyon, Kern County.

Adult, Del Norte County © Alan Barron

Adult, El Dorado County. © Richard Porter

Juvenile, Alameda County

Adult, Alameda County

Sub-adult, San Luis Obispo County

Adult from the Berkeley Marina, Alameda County © Martin Nicolaus

Juvenile, San Benito County
© Judith Ogus

Adult in defensive pose with head enlarged in a triangular shape, San Benito County © Judith Ogus

Striped Morphs and Other Unusual Patterns

Striped adult, Yolo County.
© Dave Feliz

Striped juvenile, Yolo County
© Dave Feliz

Adult, striped phase, Sonoma County © Edgar Ortega

Adult, striped phase, Solano County, © Gary Nafis Specimen courtesy of Rick Staub

Juvenile, striped phase, Solano County
© John Stephenson

Pale, striped Adult, Yolo County
© Michael Sutcliffe

Solano County © Mike Spencer

Adult, Napa County © Edgar Ortega

An adult which appears to be amelanistic, or missing black pigment, Placer County © Terrence Howe

Intergrades

Adult, from Tule Lake, Siskiyou county, where P. c. catenifer intergrades with P. c. deserticola.

Adult, from Tule Lake, Siskiyou county, where
P. c. catenifer intergrades with P. c. deserticola.

Feeding

Juvenile, Mariposa County, eating a Western Fence Lizard © Daniel Harris

This dead juvenile 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

Adult, Kings County, preparing to eat its namesake mammal - a gopher.
© Patrick Briggs

Adult in a bird's nest eating a duck egg,
Kings County, © Patrick Briggs

Breeding

A Pacific Gophersnake emerging from its egg. © Patrick Briggs

Adults breeding, San Benito County
© Judith Ogus

Adults breeding, Marin County
© Natalie McNear

Predation

California Kingsnakes are powerful predators capable of eating other snakes almost as large as they are. Here you can see one eating a Pacific Gopher Snake. © Patrick Briggs

Habitat

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Habitat, Alameda County

Habitat, San Mateo County

Habitat, Yuba County

Habitat, Lake County

Habitat, Napa County

Habitat, Santa Cruz County

Habitat, Kings County

Habitat, San Luis Obispo County

Habitat, San Benito County

Habitat, Butte County

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Habitat, Alameda County

Habitat, Siskiyou County

Creekside habitat, 1,450 ft., Kern County

Habitat, Kern County

Habitat, Alameda County

Habitat, San Joaquin County

Habitat, Alameda County

Habitat, Kern County

How to Tell the Difference Between Gopher Snakes and Rattlesnakes

A harmless gopher snake is sometimes mistaken for a venomous rattlesnake and killed unnecessarily (by someone who wrongly believes that all rattlesnakes should be killed.) It is easy to avoid this mistake and save the life of a harmless beneficial snake by learning to tell the difference between a gopher snake and a rattlesnake.These signs explain how to do that. Still, if you do not have training in handling venomous snakes, you should never handle any snake unless you are absolutely certain that it is not dangerous.

Short Videos

A Pacific Gophersnake, not happy to be picked up off the road by a crazy human, curls up in a defensive stance, investigates the camera, then crawls away. This movie contains no sound.

The same Pacific Gopher snake as the one to the left shows its defensive arsenal, which includes coiling, puffing up, and elevating the body, flattening the head into a triangular shape, hissing loudly, shaking the tail, and striking repeatedly. When its tormentor (and photographer) backs off, the snake crawls away, keeping its head and neck defensively arched, ready to quickly coil and strike if needed.

A distressed Pacific Gopher Snake shakes its tail rapidly, which makes a buzzing sound as the tail touches the ground. This behavior might be a mimic of a rattlesnake's rattlng, or it could be a similar behavior that helps to warn off an animal that could be a threat to the gopher snake.

A juvenile gophersnake is found under a log in early spring in Conta Costa County.

Here's a little taste of roadcruising - driving, driving, driving, then finally a snake is spotted on the road. This one is an intergrade gopher snake from the sagebrush desert of eastern Siskiyou County.

A big gopher snake is discovered under a small rock on a sunny late winter afternoon in Kern Canyon.

Here's a YouTube video of a striped gopher snake in Yolo County striking at the camera from Dave Feliz.

Description

Nonvenomous

Considered harmless to humans.

Size

Adults of this species can be 2.5 - 7 feet long (76 - 213 cm) but most of this subspecies are from 4.5 - 5 ft. (137 - 152 cm.) Hatchlings are fairly long, and may exceed 20 inches in length (51 cm.)

Appearance

A large snake with heavily keeled scales, a narrow head that is slightly wider than the neck, and a protruding rostral scale on the tip of the snout that is bluntly rounded. Ground color is straw or tan, with large square dark chocolate blotches or saddles along the back and smaller gray spots on the sides. The back of the neck is dark brown. The underside is cream to yellowish with dark spots. Often there is a reddish color on the top, especially near the tail.

A striped morph is also found, often in Solano and Yolo Counties around the Davis Area.

Key to California gopher snake subspecies.

Behavior

Active in the daytime, and at night in hot weather. One of the most commonly seen snakes on roads and trails, especially in the spring when males are actively seeking a mate, and in the fall when hatchlings emerge. A good burrower, climber, and swimmer. A powerful constrictor; kills prey by suffocating them in body coils or by pressing the animal against the walls of their underground burrows.
When threatened, a gophersnake willl elevate and inflate its body, flatten its head into a triangular shape, hiss loudly, and quickly shake its tail back and forth to make a buzzing sound which may be a mimic of a rattlesnake rattle.
You can listen to a recording of a gophersnake hissing here, and watch short movies of a gopher snake hissing and striking here, and shaking its tail here.

Diet

Small mammals, especially pocket gophers, birds and their eggs, and occasionally lizards and insects.

Reproduction

Mating occurs in spring after emergence from winter hibernation, with eggs laid June - August, hatching in 2 to 2.5 months. Mating and egg laying will occur later in more northern climates or at higher elevations.

Range

This subspecies, Pituophis catenifer catenifer - Pacific Gopher Snake, occurs north of roughly Santa Barbara County west of the Sierra Nevada mountains into Oregon. It is absent from the far northeast corner of California.

The species Pituophis catenifer - Gopher Snake, occurs from the southern edge of Canada in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, south to the tip of Baja California and northern mainland Mexico, and east to Indiana and east Texas, excluding most of Arkansas, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and much of Illinois and Wisconsin. It is also found in the Channel Islands and on several islands off the west coast of Baja California.

Habitat

Found in a variety of habitats -open grassland and brushland, mixed woodlands, coniferous forest, agricultural farmland, chaparral, marshes, around suburban homes and garden sheds, and and riparian zones, from lowlands to the mountains.

Taxonomic Notes

8 subspecies of Pituophis catenifer are recognized - 2 occur in Baja California, and 6 occur in the United States. It has been proposed that the snakes from Baja California are a new species. 5 of these 8 subspecies occur in California, with one endemic, and one that only occurs in California and Baja California.

Gophersnakes are related to Ratsnakes and Kingsnakes, and they have been known to interbreed with these species.

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

A very common snake, but often mistaken for the similar rattlesnake and killed unnecessarily. Frequently killed by traffic when crossing roads.

Taxonomy
Family	Colubridae	Colubrids
Genus	Pituophis	Bullsnakes, Gopher Snakes, and Pinesnakes
Species	catenifer	Gopher Snake
Subspecies	catenifer	Pacific Gopher Snake
Original Description
Pituophis catenifer - (Blainville, 1835) - Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, Vol. 4, p. 290, pl. 26, figs. 2-2b from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Pituophis - Greek - pitys- pine and ophis - snake - possibly referring to habitat of nominate subspecies on U.S. east coast (the Pine Snake) catenifer - Latin - catena - chain and -ifera - bearing - referring to the dorsal pattern from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Alternate Names
Formerly Pituophis melanoleucus
Related or Similar California Snakes
P. c. affinis - Sonoran Gopher Snake P. c. annectens - San Diego Gopher Snake P. c. deserticola - Great Basin Gopher Snake P. c. pumilis - Santa Cruz Island Gopher Snake A. e. occidentalis - California Glossy Snake
More Information and References
Natureserve Explorer California Dept. of Fish and Game Patrick Briggs' World Pituophis Site 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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