Range in California: Light Green
Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies
Listen to a Gopher Snake
hissing defensively
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Adult, Santa Barbara County. © Gary Nafis. Specimen courtesy of Krista Fahy, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
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Adults, Santa Rosa Island, Santa Barbara County. Photos © Patrick H. Briggs,
Specimen courtesy of Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
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Adult, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Barbara County. Photos © Patrick H. Briggs, Specimen courtesy of Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History |
Adult, Santa Cruz Island
© Oscar Johnson |
How to Tell the Difference Between Gopher Snakes and Rattlesnakes |
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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. |
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Habitat |
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Habitat - Santa Cruz Island, Santa Barbara County
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Short Videos |
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A San Diego Gopher Snake flicks its tongue and crawls across a dirt road.
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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. |
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Description |
Nonvenomous |
| Considered harmless to humans. |
| Size |
| Adults of this species can be 2.5 - 7 feet long (76 - 213 cm) but this subspecies is a small or "dwarf" subspecies which only grows to just over 3 feet long ( 91 cm.) Hatchlings of P. catenifer are fairly long, generally around 15 inches in length (38 cm) but those of this subspecies have been recorded at 6.5 - 9 inches. |
| Appearance |
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 rounded. Ground color is olive, grayish, or brownish with small discrete dark blotches along the back and smaller markings on the sides. The underside is pale and lightly speckled. The back of the neck is dark.
Key to California gopher snake subspecies. |
| Behavior |
Gophersnakes are generally active in the daytime, and at night in hot weather, and especially at dusk and dawn. They are good burrowers, climbers, and swimmers. 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 |
| Due to the more limited fauna of the islands, Santa Cruz Island Gophersnakes have a less varied diet than other subspecies of gophersnakes. Their diet probably includes mice, lizards, birds eggs and nestlings. Juveniles probably take small lizards, mice, and possibly insects. |
| Reproduction |
| As with other subspecies, Mating probably occurs in spring after emergence from winter hibernation, with eggs 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.
Occurs only on two (possibly three) of the Channel Islands south of the Santa Barbara coast - Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands. There is also an unverified sight record from San Miguel Island. |
| Habitat |
| Occurs in all types of vegetation found on the islands. Most common in open grassland, dry streambeds, and oak and chaparral woodlands. From near sea level to 2,100 feet (640 m) on Santa Cruz Island. |
| 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) |
| The proliferation of feral livestock such as sheep and pigs may have had an impact on populations of this snake by altering the vegetation and landscape. Pigs have also been known to eat snakes. Attempts have been made to remove or eradicate these introduced species. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Colubridae |
Colubrids |
| Genus |
Pituophis |
Bullsnakes, Gopher Snakes, and Pinesnakes |
| Species |
catenifer |
Gopher Snake |
Subspecies
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pumilis |
Santa Cruz Island Gopher Snake |
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Original Description |
Pituophis catenifer - (Blainville, 1835) - Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, Vol. 4, p. 290, pl. 26, figs. 2-2b
Pituophis catenifer pumilis - Klauber, 1946 - Trans. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. 11, p. 41, pl. 3
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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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
pumilis - Latin - diminuitive or dwarfish
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Santa Cruz Gopher Snake
Formerly Pituophis melanoleucus
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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
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Patrick Briggs' World Pituophis Site
The Pituophis Page: P. c. pumilis
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.
Schoenherr, Allan A. Natural History of the Islands of California. The University of California Press, 2003.
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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.
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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 Game |
DFG:SSC |
Californiia Species of Special Concern |
| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G5T1T2 S1? |
Secure |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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None |
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