Black Rat Snake

While working on the farm a Black Rat Snake came crawling out of a wood pile I was moving. The engine noise in the background is the skid steer. This is actually a younger snake. A Black Rat Snake can grow up to 9 feet in length. This one was probably a little over 4 feet long. When they're born it's harder to distinguish the species apart bc many of them are born gray with a boa constrictor like pattern on them. Their true colors will emerge as they mature. Rat snakes are all over America and can be found in almost any kind of environment from desert to swamp. The Black Rat Snake is often mistaken for a Black Racer, which is another kind common species of snake sharing the Rat Snake's range of habitat. A good way to tell the difference is the Black Racer will take off as soon as it sees you at an almost comical speed. I have not been able to catch a Racer without using a stick or cornering it. To run down and catch one is still on my bucket list.
But for now the Black Rat Snakes will keep the farm rodent free. I had actually spotted this one around 40 minutes before. It had bitten the back end of a large rat that was trying to escape. The rat had pulled the snake out of my sight and I started working again. Apparently the snake won and ate the rat. It will try to run away from me in the video but you can see that it's too fat where the rat was in its body.

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