A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Pituophis catenifer deserticola - Great Basin Gopher Snake

Click on a picture for a larger view

Range in California: Green

Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies

Listen to a Gopher Snake
hissing defensively

Adult, Inyo County

Juvenile, Inyo County

Adult, San Bernardino County
© Michael Clarkson

Adult, Kern County
© Patrick Briggs

Adult, Kern County
© Brad Alexander

Adult, San Bernardino County © Guntram Deichsel

Adult, Kern County © Todd Battey

Adult, Lassen County © Debbie Frost

Adult, San Bernardino County
© John Worden

A pair of mating adults from Lassen County © Debbie Frost

Debbie Frost relocated the breeding pair shown above, and one of them crawled down a hole, quickly coming back up with a kangaroo rat. The snake then crawled into the shade made by Debbie's shadow and ate while she watched.

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

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

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.

Follow these links to see more pictures of this subspecies from the Northwest and from the Southwest.

Habitat

Habitat, 6,000 ft. Inyo County

Habitat, San Bernardino County

Habitat, Siskiyou County

Habitat, Inyo County

Habitat, Lassen County

Short Videos

A Great Basin Gopher Snake crawls across a road and into the grass in the Owens Valley.

A large gopher snake crawls off a road in a Mojave desert canyon.

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 Great Basin Gopher Snake crawls across a dirt road in Okanagan County, Washington.

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.

Description

Nonvenomous

Considered harmless to humans.

Size

Adults of this species can be 2.5 - 7 feet long (76 - 213 cm.) Great Basin Gophersnakes have been recorded up to 6 feet (183 cm) and are most commonly under 5 ft. long (152 cm.) Hatchlings of P. catenifer are fairly long, generally around 15 inches in length (38 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 slightly rounded. Ground color is cream to yellowish, with large quadrangular brown, blackish, and reddish brown blotches along the back and smaller markings on the sides. Often the blotches form a dark band on the sides of the neck. The back of the neck is pale in the southern part of the range, but mottled with dark coloring in the northern part of the range. This subspecies typically has black or dark blotches on the neck and the tail and lighter brown or reddish blotches inbetween. The underside is pale with some dark markings.

Key to California gopher snake subspecies.

Behavior

Active in the daytime, and at night in hot weather, and especially at dusk and dawn. 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

As with other subspecies, eggs are probably laid June - August, hatching in 2 to 2.5 months.

Range

The species Pituophis catenifer 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.

The subspecies Pituophis catenifer deserticola occurs in southeastern California north of approximately the Riverside county line through the Mojave Desert and east of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It ranges farther north through Nevada, eastern Oregon and Washington into British Columbia, and is also found in parts of Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and new Mexico.

There is a wide range of integration with P. c. catenifer in northeastern California and eastern Oregon. Also intergrades with P. c. annectans in the south.

Habitat

Found in a variety of habitats - grassland, coastal sage scrub, agricultural lands, riparian areas, woodlands, and desert, from sea level to the mountains. Especially common in coastal areas.

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	deserticola	Great Basin Gopher Snake
Original Description
Pituophis catenifer - (Blainville, 1835) - Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, Vol. 4, p. 290, pl. 26, figs. 2-2b Pituophis catenifer deserticola - Stejneger, 1893 - N. Amer. Fauna, No. 7, p. 206 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 deserticola - Latin - desert dry place and -icola - inhabitant of - refers to its habitat 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. catenifer - Pacific Gopher Snake P. c. deserticola - Great Basin Gopher Snake P. c. pumilis - Santa Cruz Island Gopher Snake A. e. candida - Mohave Glossy Snake A. e. eburnata - Desert Glossy Snake
More Information and References
Natureserve Explorer California Dept. of Fish and Game Patrick Briggs' World Pituophis Site 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 several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game. 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 Game	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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