Animalia > Chordata > Squamata > Colubridae > Pantherophis > Pantherophis obsoletus

Pantherophis obsoletus (Western Rat Snake)

Synonyms: Coluber obsoletus; Elaphe obsoleta; Elaphe obsoleta lindheimerii (heterotypic); Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta; Scotophis lindheimerii (heterotypic)

Wikipedia Abstract

The western rat snake (Pantherophis obsoletus) – also known as the Texas ratsnake, black rat snake, pilot black snake, or simply black snake – is a nonvenomous species of Colubridae found in central North America. No subspecies are currently recognized.
View Wikipedia Record: Pantherophis obsoletus

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  14.465 lbs (6.561 kg)
Female Maturity [1]  4 years
Male Maturity [1]  4 years
Gestation [1]  74 days
Litter Size [1]  14
Maximum Longevity [1]  34 years

Habitat Vegetation Classification

Name Location  Website 
Overcup Oak - Sweetgum Bottomland Forest United States (Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana)
Pin Oak - Post Oak Lowland Flatwoods United States (Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas)
Silver Maple - Sugarberry - Pecan Floodplain Forest United States (Tennessee, Illinois, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana)
Swamp Chestnut Oak - Sweetgum Floodplain Forest United States (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois)
Willow Oak Bottomland Flatwoods Forest United States (Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas)

Prey / Diet

Aix sponsa (Wood Duck)[2]
Egretta thula (Snowy Egret)[2]
Megascops asio (Eastern Screech-Owl)[2]
Passer domesticus (House Sparrow)[2]

Predators

Buteo jamaicensis (Red-tailed Hawk)[2]
Buteo platypterus (Broad-winged Hawk)[2]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0