Reptiles
Coachwhip
Masticophis flagellum · also called whip snake, red racer
Across the American South, people will tell you that the coachwhip chases you down, wraps around you, and lashes you to death with its tail, then checks whether you are still breathing. None of that happens. What is real is a fast, sharp-eyed, unusually bold snake that hunts by day with its head in the air.
Overview
Masticophis flagellum is a very slender, fast, alert snake of open dry country across the southern United States and Mexico, from tan-and-pink desert “red racers” to nearly black eastern forms. It hunts lizards, snakes, rodents, and birds by chasing them down and swallowing them alive, without constricting.
Fast, and heads-up
It moves at around 6 to 8 km/h, among the fastest snakes on the continent, and while foraging it repeatedly raises the front of its body high to look over the vegetation, then races over to any movement it sees.
The whip, and the myth
Its long tapering tail has scales arranged like plaited leather, hence the name. It has no venom, but a cornered coachwhip often stands its ground, buzzes its tail, and strikes hard.
Status
Least Concern overall, but declining in the southeastern coastal plain as open, fire-maintained sandhill habitat is lost, and hit hard on roads because it forages by day.
Coachwhip: common questions
Will a coachwhip really chase you and whip you to death?
No. This is one of the most widespread snake myths in the United States, and it is false in every part. A coachwhip does not pursue people, cannot and does not coil around a standing person, and its tail is a normal tapering snake tail with no ability to strike like a whip or to check for breathing. What is true is that the coachwhip is fast, active by day, and unusually bold, so a person walking in open country may see one moving quickly in their direction, especially if the snake is heading for the same bush or burrow, and a cornered coachwhip will often face the threat, rear up, hiss, buzz its tail, and strike rather than flee. That confident behaviour, plus the snake's whip-like appearance, is enough to keep the legend alive.
How fast is a coachwhip?
It is among the fastest snakes in North America, with measured speeds of roughly 6 to 8 kilometres per hour and bursts a little quicker over smooth ground. That does not sound like much, but it is fast for a snake and fast enough that a coachwhip can cross an open patch in a blur, disappear down a burrow before you reach it, and, over a short sprint on flat ground, briefly keep ahead of a running person. It relies on this speed both to catch fast prey like lizards and racerunners and to escape predators such as hawks and other snakes.
What does a coachwhip eat, and does it really eat rattlesnakes?
Its favourite prey is lizards, which it runs down in the open, but it has a broad diet that includes rodents, birds and eggs, frogs, large insects, and other snakes, and yes, it will kill and eat rattlesnakes and other venomous species when it can. It is not known to be immune to pit viper venom the way a kingsnake is, so it takes some risk in doing so, but its speed and its habit of seizing the head first help. Unlike a rat snake or a kingsnake it does not constrict; it simply grabs prey and swallows it, often while the animal is still struggling.
Why is the coachwhip declining in the Southeast when it is common elsewhere?
Because the specific habitat it needs there is disappearing. In the southeastern coastal plain the coachwhip is a specialist of open, sunny, sandy habitats such as longleaf pine sandhills and scrub, which depend on frequent low-intensity fire to stay open. Fire suppression has let these areas grow up into dense, shady woodland that suits the snake poorly, and much of the sandhill and scrub that remains has been cleared for housing, agriculture, and pine plantations. Combined with the coachwhip's heavy losses on roads, this has thinned or removed it from parts of its eastern range even though the species as a whole is secure.