California Reptiles & Amphibians

Pituophis catenifer catenifer - Pacific Gopher Snake

Click on a picture for a larger view

Range in California: Red

Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies

Listen to a Gopher Snake
hissing defensively

Adult, Livermore, Alameda County

Adult in defensive posture, Pescadero, San Mateo County

Adult, Yuba County

Adult, Central Valley, Western Kern County

Sub-adult, East Bay Hills,
Contra Costa County

Adult, Marin County

Juvenile, Kern Plateau, Kern County

Adult, San Benito County

Adult, San Luis Obiso County

Hissing adult, Kings County
© Patrick Briggs

Adult, Clear Lake, Lake County

Adult, Butte County
© Jackson Shedd

Adult, Merced County.
© Jennifer Rycenga

Adult, Marin County

Adult, San Luis Obispo County

Adult, Kings County © Patrick Briggs

Adult, Del Norte County © Alan Barron

Adult in a bird's nest eating a duck egg,
Kings County, © Patrick Briggs

Neonate hatching from its egg. © pat
© Patrick Briggs

Adult, Kings County, preparing to eat its namesake mammal - a gopher.
© Patrick Briggs

Adult, probable intergrade with P. c. deserticola, Tule Lake, Siskiyou county

Striped Morph

Striped adult, Yolo County.
© Dave Feliz

Striped juvenile, Yolo County
© Dave Feliz

Adult, striped phase, Sonoma County © Edgar Ortega

Adult, striped phase, Solano County, © Gary Nafis Specimen courtesy of Rick Staub

Juvenile, striped phase, Solano County
© John Stephenson

Pale, striped Adult, Yolo County
© Michael Sutcliffe

Solano County © Mike Spencer

Habitat

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Habitat, Alameda County

Habitat, San Mateo County

Habitat, Yuba County

Habitat, Lake County

Habitat, Napa County

Habitat, Santa Cruz County

Habitat, Kings County

Habitat, San Luis Obispo County

Habitat, San Benito County

Habitat, Butte County

How to Tell the Difference Between Gopher Snakes and Rattlesnakes

A harmless gopher snake is sometimes mistaken for a venomous rattlesnake and killed unnecessarily (by someone who wrongly believes that all rattlesnakes should be killed.) It is easy to avoid this mistake and save the life of a harmless beneficial snake by learning to tell the difference between a gopher snake and a rattlesnake.These signs explain how to do that. Still, if you do not have training in handling venomous snakes, you should never handle any snake unless you are absolutely certain that it is not dangerous.

Short Video

A Pacific Gophersnake, not happy to be picked up off the road by a crazy human, curls up in a defensive stance, investigates the camera, then crawls away. This movie contains no sound.

The same Pacific Gopher snake as the one to the left shows its defensive arsenal, which includes coiling, puffing up, and elevating the body, flattening the head into a triangular shape, hissing loudly, shaking the tail, and striking repeatedly. When its tormentor gives up, the snake crawls away, keeping its head and neck defensively arched, ready to quickly coil and strike if needed.

A distressed Pacific Gopher Snake shakes its tail rapidly. Part of a gopher snake's defensive strategy is rapidly shaking the tail to create a buzzing sound. This behavior may be a mimic of a rattlesnake's rattlng, or it might just be a similar behavior that helps to warn off danger.

Description

Nonvenomous

Considered harmless to humans.

Size

Adults of this species can be 2.5 - 7 feet long (76 - 213 cm) but most of this subspecies are from 4.5 - 5 ft. (137 - 152 cm.) Hatchlings are fairly long, and may exceed 20 inches in length (51 cm.)

Appearance

A large snake with heavily keeled scales, a narrow head that is slightly wider than the neck, and a protruding rostral scale on the tip of the snout. Ground color is straw or tan, with large dark chocolate blotches or saddles along the back and smaller gray spots on the sides. The back of the neck is dark brown. The underside is cream to yellowish with dark spots. Often there is a reddish color on the top, especially near the tail.

A striped morph is also found, often in Solano and Yolo Counties around the Davis Area.

Behavior

Active in the daytime, and at night in hot weather. One of the most commonly seen snakes on roads and trails, especially in the spring when males are actively seeking a mate, and in the fall when hatchlings emerge. A good burrower, climber, and swimmer. A powerful constrictor; kills prey by suffocating them in body coils or by pressing the animal against the walls of their underground burrows.
When threatened, a gophersnake willl elevate and inflate its body, flatten its head into a triangular shape, hiss loudly, and quickly shake its tail back and forth to make a buzzing sound which may be a mimic of a rattlesnake rattle.
You can listen to a recording of a gophersnake hissing here, and watch short movies of a gopher snake hissing and striking here, and shaking its tail here.

Diet

Small mammals, especially pocket gophers, birds and their eggs, and occasionally lizards and insects.

Reproduction

Eggs are laid June - August and hatch in 2 to 2.5 months.

Range

Occurs in most of California north of roughly Santa Barbara County through Oregon. Absent from the south coast, the deserts, the eastern Sierras and the northeast corner.

Habitat

Found in a variety of habitats -open grassland and brushland, mixed woodlands, coniferous forest, agricultural farmland, chaparral, marshes, and riparian zones, from lowlands to the mountains.

Taxonomic Notes

8 subspecies of Pituophis catenifer are recognized - 2 occur in Baja California, and 6 occur in the United States. It has been proposed that the snakes from Baja California are a new species. 5 of these subspecies occur in California, with one endemic, and one that only occurs in California and Baja California. Gophersnakes are related to Ratsnakes and Kingsnakes, and they have been known to interbreed with these species.

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

A very common snake, but often mistaken for the similar rattlesnake and killed unnecessarily. Frequently killed by traffic when crossing roads.

Taxonomy
Family	Colubridae	Colubrids
Genus	Pituophis	Bullsnakes, Gopher Snakes, and Pinesnakes
Species	catenifer	Gopher Snake
Subspecies	catenifer	Pacific Gopher Snake
Original Description
Pituophis catenifer - (Blainville, 1835) - Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, Vol. 4, p. 290, pl. 26, figs. 2-2b from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Pituophis - Greek - pitys- pine and ophis - snake - possibly referring to habitat of nominate subspecies on U.S. east coast (the Pine Snake) catenifer - Latin - catena - chain and -ifera - bearing - referring to the dorsal pattern from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Alternate Names
Formerly Pituophis melanoleucus
Related or Similar California Snakes
P. c. affinis - Sonoran Gopher Snake P. c. annectens - San Diego Gopher Snake P. c. deserticola - Great Basin Gopher Snake P. c. pumilis - Santa Cruz Island Gopher Snake A. e. occidentalis - California Glossy Snake
More Information and References
Natureserve Explorer California Dept. of Fish and Game Patrick Briggs' World Pituophis Site Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Snakes of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009. Bartlett, R.D. , & Alan Tennant. Snakes of North America - Western Region. Gulf Publishing Co., 2000. Brown, Philip R. A Field Guide to Snakes of California. Gulf Publishing Co., 1997. Ernst, Carl H., Evelyn M. Ernst, & Robert M. Corker. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003. Wright, Albert Hazen & Anna Allen Wright. Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Cornell University Press. Brown, Philip R. A Field Guide to Snakes of California. Gulf Publishing Co., 1997.

Conservation Status
The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game. This snake is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
Organization	Status Listing
U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA)
California Endangered Species Act (CESA)
California Department of Fish and Game
Bureau of Land Management
USDA Forest Service
Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List

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