Reptiles
Gopher Snake
Pituophis catenifer · also called bullsnake, pine snake
The gopher snake is one of the most common large snakes in the American West, and one of the most useful, and it spends a lot of its life being killed by mistake. Its defence is to impersonate a rattlesnake, and it does the job so well that people cannot tell the difference.
Overview
Pituophis catenifer ranges across western North America, in grassland, desert, farmland, and open woodland. It is a heavy-bodied constrictor, commonly 1.2–1.8 m and, as the Great Plains bullsnake, up to 2.7 m. It eats mostly rodents — pocket gophers, ground squirrels, mice, and rats — following them into their burrows.
The rattlesnake act
Cornered, it flattens its head, coils, and buzzes its tail in dry leaves, and it gives a loud, rasping hiss amplified by a flap of cartilage in the windpipe — one of the few real sound-making organs in any snake. The mimicry deters predators, but it also gets the harmless snake mistaken for a rattlesnake and killed.
Telling them apart
The gopher snake has round pupils, a narrow head, a pointed rattle-less tail, and no facial pit — a rattlesnake has the opposite of all four.
Status
Least Concern and stable, tolerant of farmland, though it takes heavy losses on roads and from people.
Gopher Snake: common questions
Is a gopher snake venomous or dangerous?
No. The gopher snake has no venom and kills its prey by constriction, and it is harmless to people. A large one that is cornered and cannot escape may hiss loudly, strike with a closed mouth, and, if grabbed, bite and musk, and the bite can leave a set of shallow scratches, but there is no venom and no medical concern. Its whole defensive strategy is bluff. The problem for the snake is that the bluff works too well on humans, who mistake the hissing, tail-buzzing, head-flattening animal for a rattlesnake and kill it, when in fact it is one of the most useful snakes a landowner can have.
How can I tell a gopher snake from a rattlesnake?
Several features separate them if you look, from a safe distance. A gopper snake has round pupils; a rattlesnake has vertical, cat-like pupils. A gopher snake has a smooth, tapering head only a little wider than the neck; a rattlesnake has a distinctly broad, arrowhead-shaped head. A gopher snake's tail comes to a plain point and, when vibrated in leaves, only sounds like a rattle; a rattlesnake has actual rattle segments. A rattlesnake also has a heat-sensing pit between the eye and nostril, which a gopher snake lacks. And a gopher snake's body is more slender with cleaner-edged blotches. When in doubt, give any snake space and let it move off.
Why does the gopher snake mimic a rattlesnake?
Because looking and sounding dangerous is a cheap and effective defence for an animal that has no real weapons. Rattlesnakes are common across the same country as gopher snakes, and predators, including many mammals and birds, have learned to treat the sight of a coiled, triangular-headed snake and the sound of a buzzing tail as a signal to leave it alone. By copying those cues, the harmless gopher snake borrows that protection. It flattens its head with special jaw muscles, coils in the rattlesnake's striking posture, and has evolved the throat structure that turns an ordinary hiss into a loud, rasping, rattle-like buzz. It is one of the clearest cases of a non-venomous snake mimicking a venomous one by behaviour and sound rather than colour.
Do gopher snakes make good pets?
Yes, they are a solid choice for someone who wants a larger colubrid. They are hardy, long-lived, feed reliably on rodents, tolerate a range of conditions, and become calm with regular gentle handling, losing the defensive hissing and striking they show in the wild. The main considerations are size, since an adult, especially a bullsnake, needs a large enclosure and is a strong, active snake, and sourcing, as captive-bred animals from a breeder are far better than wild-caught ones both for the snake's temperament and for wild populations. As with all snakes, a secure, escape-proof enclosure is essential.