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Corn Snake vs Copperhead

I saw this one when measuring my door outside yesterday. The door is 4' wide and the snake was folded in half at the end (left side) and curled half way back, so a 6'. (head is on the right) I was just glad it didn't fall on my head when I moved the door while measuring before I looked up!

I wasn't sure if it was a king snake or a rat snake, but I'm thinking rat?

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I looked at the pics and definitely see how the bigger one is a King snake but, from the video, how did you know the little one was a corn snake. My eyesight isn't great but what details gave it away?

I'm in no way arguing with your identification, I'm just trying to see the difference. I was about as close to those two snakes as I've ever knowingly been to any snake that wasn't behind glass.
 
Smoothie said:
I saw this one when measuring my door outside yesterday. The door is 4' wide and the snake was folded in half at the end (left side) and curled half way back, so a 6'. (head is on the right) I was just glad it didn't fall on my head when I moved the door while measuring before I looked up!

I wasn't sure if it was a king snake or a rat snake, but I'm thinking rat?

View attachment 519270
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Beautiful Black Rat snake. I'd love to have him around the barn.
 
jdm333 said:
I looked at the pics and definitely see how the bigger one is a King snake but, from the video, how did you know the little one was a corn snake. My eyesight isn't great but what details gave it away?

I'm in no way arguing with your identification, I'm just trying to see the difference. I was about as close to those two snakes as I've ever knowingly been to any snake that wasn't behind glass.
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I grew up in FL and had snakes as pets all my life. Caught, bred and sold hundreds as a kid. If you spend a lot of time catching them, you get pretty good at identifying them quickly. An incorrect id could prove to be very bad news.... Used to make a fair amount of side cash selling them to the local pet stores.
 
Beautiful snakes. I'm in the "snake lover" category myself. I think your black one is an eastern king (for 2 reasons). The color pattern (the single yellow line and the multi colored belly). I think a rat snake has more color on his back and a plain white belly. But hard to tell sometimes.

The King snake is named that because he is the "KING OF SNAKES". He eats other snakes, including venomous ones. They are my absolute favorite snake to see. And they are smart. If approached by a predator, a King snake will run his tail under a pile of leaves/twigs and shake it, trying to make a rattlesnake noise. He thinks he can fool his predator by doing this. Who knows; maybe it works.

Anyway, lovely snakes and lovely video. And hey, even if that smaller one is not venomous, let that king snake eat! You want him to stick around.
 
Smoothie said:
I saw this one when measuring my door outside yesterday. The door is 4' wide and the snake was folded in half at the end (left side) and curled half way back, so a 6'. (head is on the right) I was just glad it didn't fall on my head when I moved the door while measuring before I looked up!

I wasn't sure if it was a king snake or a rat snake, but I'm thinking rat?

View attachment 519270
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This one appears to be a rat snake to me.
 
rlmblm21 said:
Beautiful snakes. I'm in the "snake lover" category myself. I think your black one is an eastern king (for 2 reasons). The color pattern (the single yellow line and the multi colored belly). I think a rat snake has more color on his back and a plain white belly. But hard to tell sometimes.

The King snake is named that because he is the "KING OF SNAKES". He eats other snakes, including venomous ones. They are my absolute favorite snake to see. And they are smart. If approached by a predator, a King snake will run his tail under a pile of leaves/twigs and shake it, trying to make a rattlesnake noise. He thinks he can fool his predator by doing this. Who knows; maybe it works.

Anyway, lovely snakes and lovely video. And hey, even if that smaller one is not venomous, let that king snake eat! You want him to stick around.[/QUOTE

I was surprised at how little the King snake seemed to care about me and my wife being there. We were on the steps less than three feet away from it. He finished his meal and slowly slithered off into what I consider a "snakey" spot just past my fence. I have video of that but it failed to upload last night.

I expected to see it haul tail but I'm guessing it is in its home range and felt comfortable. Of course he also had a full belly and rolled around for at least 30 minutes so I would expect it to be moving a little more slowly.
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Not a cornsnake, that's something much cooler. It's an Eastern Kingsnake in the process of making a Mole Kingsnake a meal. Fairly common throughout the state, but rarely seen. King on King crime!! When the animal turns over you can clearly see that it has a very indistinct checkerboarding on the underside, a cornsnake would have extremely bold black and white checkerboard pattern especially under the first third, there's also distinctive football shaped blotches and no definition between head and neck. Mole Kings are extremely variable, some are almost patternless. Very cool thing to see.


Also, the one later in the post, like Bensskateshop said is a beautiful Black Ratsnake.
 
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