Good Snake/Bad Snake

People in our urban neighborhood have been finding snakes in their yards lately.  It's always a startling experience, and the question is:  is this a good (harmless) snake, or a bad (poisonous) snake?

Unfortunately, many people don't know how to tell the difference and react by killing beneficial snakes.

This is one of the good ones, either a Pacific Gopher Snake, Phouphis catenifer catenifer, or a San Diego Gopher Snake, Phouphis catenifer annectens:  Gopher Snake Identification.  We found him sunning himself on our garden wall a couple of months ago, so I was able to get a couple of good pictures, including ones of his head and neck and body pattern.

These snakes live on small rodents, such as rats, mice and ground squirrels, as well as lizards, birds and even other snakes.   When they feel threatened, Gopher Snakes may hiss and shake their tails, which may lead whatever is threatening the snake to assume it's a rattlesnake and leave it alone.  Unfortunately, many humans buy the deception and just kill it .

We recognized this one as a beneficial snake and just left him to go about his gopher and rat eradicating business.

And this is one of the dangerous ones, probably a Southern Pacific Rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus helleri. 

The next door neighbor found this guy curled up under some leaves when she was cleaning up her yard.  It was chilly that day, so they were able to use a shovel to just pick him up, still coiled, and get him into the box.  They called Project Wildlife, which is now part of the San Diego Humane Society, who sent Animal Control officers out to collect the snake.  We had assumed that the snake was just a baby since it was pretty small, but the officers said that the number of rattles on its tail indicated that it was about one year old.  They said the snake would be released in an uninhabited area.

So how can you tell the difference between the beneficial snake and the dangerous one?  For one thing, the Gopher Snake has a slender, glossy body and a pointed tail with no rattles, while the rattlesnake's body is thicker, not glossy, and with a blunt tail ending in a series of rattles.  The Gopher Snake's head is only slightly larger than its neck, while the rattlesnake's neck is narrower and its head is triangular.

Here's a good comparison:

Nobody likes surprises, so it's best to stay alert, make some noise and let these guys get out of your way.