Appearance ¹

Can grow to be 191 centimeters. They are solid black or blue. They have round heads and are nonvenomous.

Habitat ¹

Meadows, thin, forest and swamps - places that are warm and sunny.

Behavior/Reproduction ¹

Black racers mate in late April to early June after hibernation. The female lays 3-32 eggs a few months later in June to early July under tree stumps or in burrows. The females mature after 2-3 years and males mature after 1-2 years.

The snakes are mostly active by day. They escape predators by darting into brush or low tree branches, and they may bite. They hibernate underground.

Fun Fact ¹

Black racers will lay their eggs with the eggs of other species of snake.

Citations ¹

http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Coluber_constrictor/

Sources and Credits

1. (c) gburg2016, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Animal Diversity Web
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HerpMapper
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• Snake Database
• The Reptile Database
• VertNet

iNat Map