#1613 · 🦎 reptiles

Gopher Snake

🇳🇱 Westelijke stierslang ·Pituophis catenifer

LCleast concern 🦎 Reptiles 📍 outside Europe

9 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

Pituophis catenifer is a species of nonvenomous colubrid snake endemic to North America. Nine subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominotypical subspecies, Pituophis catenifer catenifer , described here. This snake is often mistaken for the prairie rattlesnake, but can be easily distinguished from a rattlesnake by the lack of black and white banding on its tail and by the shape of its head, which is narrower than a rattlesnake's.

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 84,563iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
84,563 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1835 (191 years ago).