Chicken snake

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The chicken snake is not actually a species of snake, it is a colloquial term given to a number of different snakes which often frequent farms and barns, usually looking for rodent prey, but sometimes will also consume chicken eggs and young chicks. The species which the term "chicken snake" refers to varies by geographic location, but typically it is the rat snakes, of the genus Pantherophis which are labelled as such. In Texas it is usually the Texas rat snake (Pantherophis obsoletus lindheimeri), in the southeast it is often the black rat snake (Pantherophis obsoletus obsoletus), in the Midwestern United States it is the fox snake (Pantherophis vulpina or Pantherophis gloydi), and in Central and South America it is the tiger rat snake (Spilotes pullatus). Almost any other snake that isn't considered to be a rattlesnake or cottonmouth on a farm property is often referred to as a "chicken snake".