[C.J.]

Today's offering is beneficial to our environment. She lives here, on the grounds and has been here for a few years. She is a Sonoran gopher snake, a local subspecies of the common gopher snake. (No, I didn't pick her up looking for the uro-genital cloaca positioning, she has a nest with a clutch of eggs.) They eat rodents!!! When confronted, they will ball up and hiss, shake their tale like a rattler and lunge at the intruder. Rather harmless, actually. They tend to be diurnal…

Pictures taken a week ago.

She is just under five feet long.

Sonoran Gopher Snake - Pituophis melanoleucus affinsis

 

[AZtortoise]

she is a beaut! i have come across her kind many times, and at first glance i think 'RATTLER" but a quick look at either end lets me know she is not poisonous.

thanks CJ

Rita

 

[Ob1Hoagie]

Yep... I live right up against...

Mcdowell Mtn park and as I was looking in my rear view mirror of my
car and watching my garage door close I saw a 5" plus gopher snake
head right into my garage. I used water from our garden hose to corral
it out of our garage. A beautiful snake and not aggressive at all.
I've also seen a beautiful 5" plus King snake (iridescent white and black bands)
head across the road in front of our house. In terms of aggressiveness
"most" of the diamondbacks I've run into seem to be having bad days
though I have run into some that were not aggressive and just want
to be left alone. They are all god's creatures and are better off
being left alone to do the work that they were intended to do...