What kind of snake is it?

[Dave McClung]

I have tried to identify the snake I saw at the Wild Horses Monument, but have not found one like it on the internet. Can you identify it?

The head isn't broad enough to be a rattle snake and there was no rattle on the tale.

[Jan Hart]

My husband and I agree that it a live snake!! :laughing

[Dave McClung]

My husband and I agree that it a live snake!! :laughing

I think I found the answer -- it is a Western Hooknose Snake!!

http://www.pitt.edu/~mcs2/herp/snake.pics/Gyalopion_canum.jpg

[Lee Branum]

Bull Snake. There are quite a few of those around, and they are an enemy of the rattlers found around the eastern side of the Columbia.

[Bob Wright]

But we call them Bull Snakes around here.

[Dave McClung]

But we call them Bull Snakes around here.

You both are obviously right, but it does appear that the University of Pittsburg has misidentified a bull snake as a Western Hooknose Snake. When I googled "Western Hooknose Snake", I found other pictures that differ. The pattern is different.

Wikipedia confirmed that bull snakes life in Washington and their picture is just like mine.

[Ryan Scott]

I don't think the picture you posted is the same as the one labeled hooknose. I mean, you were actually there, so your discretion is better than mine, but the markings look too different to be the same snake.

The difference I noticed immediately is the width of the dark markings along the tail. Your hooknose had much thinner ones.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Bull_snake.jpg/800px-Bull_snake.jpg

[Hal Paul]

Dad & Bob beat me to it, it looks like a bull snake to me. I recall seeing some in Nebraska when we lived there. Dad and I killed a small one (about 5 1/2 feet long) that our cat cornered on the driveway.

I almost stepped on a much larger one when I was walking through a field one time, about scared me to death. That's what I get for going mudding in a 2 wheel drive pickup, getting stuck and having to walk home.:cool:

[Wayne Paul]

I almost stepped on a much larger one when I was walking through a field one time, about scared me to death. That's what I get for going mudding in a 2 wheel drive pickup, getting stuck and having to walk home.:cool:

Hal, I have pictures of you and the truck stuck in the mud. Should I post them?

[BobHunt]

so was this one poisionious?

[Wayne Paul]

so was this one poisionious?

No, Bull snakes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_snake)are not poisionious.

[Dave McClung]

I don't think the picture you posted is the same as the one labeled hooknose. I mean, you were actually there, so your discretion is better than mine, but the markings look too different to be the same snake.

The difference I noticed immediately is the width of the dark markings along the tail. Your hooknose had much thinner ones.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Bull_snake.jpg/800px-Bull_snake.jpg

I was there, but the picture was taken with a zoom lense. As a general rule, I don't bother snakes. I admire them from a distance.

When I was hiking in Arizona a couple of weeks ago, the Ranger I met said that 70% of people who get bit by rattlesnakes are harrasing them before they get bit. His advise is to simply give the snake a wide berth.

[Hal Paul]

Hal, I have pictures of you and the truck stuck in the mud. Should I post them?

:eek: I knew you would probably go there. I'm kind of hoping they are in slides, and you still haven't bought that slide scanner we keep talking about.

What a miserable Friday/Saturday that was, and it keeps coming back to haunt me.