Hi everyone! My name is Nicki Wheaton,
I'm a naturalist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.
What I have for you today are some of the snakes that call Missouri home.
Snakes, whether they're non-venomous or venomous
have a very important role to play in our state. So, I want to show you some of the
common non-venomous snakes that you can see that are beneficial for you, but also
some of the ones they get mistaken for venomous snakes.
This is our prairie kingsnake. Prairie kingsnakes are found throughout the state and as you'll see
as I move him closer he's got some little blotches on him and then on his
back he's got some bands that go across his back. You will notice that those
bands like right in here. Those bands do not connect to those spots.
Unfortunately, these guys are mistaken for copperheads throughout our state.
The little ones are. Their bands, like I mentioned, do not connect.
Copperheads, their bands connect all the way from one side to the other.
If you think about their pattern
in a way that you would recognize it it's very easy to remember.
Copperheads, their bands are fat and then narrow and then get fat on the other side.
So, looking at a copperhead from the side it's gonna look like a Hershey kiss.
Looking at it from above it's gonna look like an hourglass.
This guy is gonna be going through lots of different habitats
and what he's gonna do is he's gonna be eating a lot of the mice and things
like that that you don't want around your house. So this is a very, very beneficial snake.
And as you can see, he's calm and all he's doing is kind of smelling.
So no harm done by this guy right here.
Another snake that is common throughout Missouri is the speckled kingsnake.
Now from far away she might look all black but if I get a closer look
her speckles are not as defined as some of the other speckled kingsnakes in our state.
But she'll have yellow speckles and then her belly will be checkered
like that with yellow. Now she, like I mentioned is a speckled kingsnake.
What's really cool about this type of snake is that kingsnakes in general, but this one
in particular really like to eat venomous snakes. So kingsnakes are super
beneficial to have around house because they're gonna eat those venomous
snakes that you might not really want around your house.
So this little thing right here if she were out in the wild and she wanted to
and she found a copperhead she could eat that. Kingsnakes are immune to
copperhead, rattlesnake, and cottonmouth venom which are someone the venomous
snakes that we have in our state. And she can eat them if she wants.
They're also going to eat mice and things like that around your house. As you can see this one it's
pretty curious they just want to get someplace that's nice and warm right
around my neck that's nice and warm and they just want to be safe.
So they really hold no danger to you if you leave them alone.
So if you don't know what you're doing. Let them be.
Let them do what they're supposed to in their habitat.
And they will be just fine they'll go and get other little snakes
to eat or mice and things like that that you don't want to around in your yard.
Like I said this is a speckled kingsnake. They're found throughout the state.
All you got to do is look for them.
This is our last snake.
This is a black rat snake, a western snake, a black snake.
It's got a lot of different common names for it.
So, as you can tell he is black. He's a black snake if you look at him
from far away that's all you're gonna see. If you see this guy up close he's
got some brown and red that goes through.
That's not uncommon, but a majority for
this species, but a majority of these guys are going to be all black.
They're going to have a white belly with black splotches on it.
So this guy is very, very common around the state.
You guys can find them out on hikes in the woods.
You guys could find them even in your own front yard or places like that.
So they eat mostly rodents, but they will go into trees. They're good climbers.
They'll go into trees and get some eggs and things like that.
But what I want you guys to see about this guy right here is his tongue.
That tongue is out and you'll notice that its forked at the very end.
Now they have that forked tongue so that they can smell all around them.
So the tongue goes out. It goes in two different ways, and it's sending messages
from over here and over here, what's around him. It goes back to a special
organ that he has and it processes that information. So they know where their
food is and where their food isn't so he's never seen my camera before so he
knows, or he's exploring what is around him.
I hope you enjoyed visiting with our
three snake friends today. Our speckled kingsnake, prairie kingsnake and our
Western rat snake.
Remember, snakes are not out to get us.
They don't want to hurt us. So when you see them out in the wild, or maybe in
your front yard or backyard, let them be. Let them continue on doing that job.
You never know, they might be going after mice that's around your house.
So let them do their job. Appreciate them for the wild animals
that they are, and the amazing opportunity that you get to see them.
I hope everyone can get outside, practice safe social distancing,
and discover nature in your own backyard.