Snakes And Ladders

We came home this afternoon and were getting out of the car, when we noticed a large snake undulating down our front steps and into our driveway.  At 56.5 inches long, it was a pretty sizable snake.

We stood a cautious distance away until we could make sure it wasn't a Western Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus), but soon identified it as a San Diego Gopher Snake, Pituophis catenifer annectens.  Gopher Snakes are sometimes mistakenly identified as rattlesnakes, partly because their camouflage patten resembles that of the rattlesnake, but also partly because the Gopher Snake sometimes reacts defensively by hissing and shaking its tail when threatened.  This may cause other critters to back off and leave the snake alone, but humans often just kill them without looking for the differences.  Rattlers have a triangular-shaped head, tend to be fatter and have a blunt tail with or without rattles.  Non-venomous Gopher Snakes have a head that is barely distinguishable from the body, tend to be thinner and have a long, narrow tail that tapers to a point.

We watched this snake slither down our driveway along the wall and decided to see where it went; it may not be venomous, but it's still a surprise to come upon a snake this size without warning.

We thought it would probably go behind our trash bins and hang out for a while, but it went right up over a piece of wood along our wall.

I moved a piece of scrap metal to form a bridge up the wall; the snake deliberated for a bit, apparently trying to decide whether it wanted to trust the metal piece, but soon went up the metal bridge and onto the top of the wall.

Then the rest of its body followed and we were able to get a good look at the pattern of its scales.  It's easy to see how people could mistake the relatively circular pattern of the Gopher Snake's scales for the diamonds of the Western Rattler.

And eventually the tip of its tail followed it over the wall.

I ran next door to let the neighbors know the snake was in their yard so they wouldn't be surprised and kill it.  It turned out that, far from being freaked out by the snake, they were delighted to learn that it would probably slowly take out their gopher population.

It may have found a happy home ground, at least for as long as the gophers last.  Then it can start on our California Ground Squirrels.