Pantherophis bairdi
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| Pantherophis bairdi Yarrow, 1880 |
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Coluber bairdi |
The Baird's Rat Snake (Pantherophis bairdi or Elaphe bairdi) is a species of non-venomous rat snake, native to the United States in the Big Bend region of western Texas, and northern Mexico in Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. The epithet bairdi is in honor of renown American zoologist Spencer Fullerton Baird.
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[edit] Description
The Baird's Rat Snake is capable of growing from 25 to 55 inches in length. It is typically an orange-yellow in color, but can be lighter to a bright yellow, or darker to a salmon color. They have four stripes which go from neck to tail. Their underside is generally gray to yellow, darkening near the tail.
[edit] Behavior
Like most rat snake species, the Baird's Rat Snake's primary diet is rodents. Though, they will also eat birds if they can catch them, and juveniles often eat lizards. They are typically more pleasantly tempered than other rat snake species. They are oviparous, laying a clutch of up to 10 eggs that takes about 3 months to hatch. They prefer semi-arid, rocky habitats.
[edit] Taxonomy
Pantherophis bairdi was once considered to be a subspecies of the Eastern Rat Snake, Pantherophis obsoletus, and it is closely related, but has enough distinct morphological characters that it was reclassified again as its own species. In 2002, the genus Elaphe underwent an extensive revision, and all North American Rat Snakes were reclassified into the genus Pantherophis, though it has not been widely accepted and many people still refer to the species as Elaphe bairdi.
