A Tale of Rat Snakes and Barbeque Sauce
If you’re already outside or in a hurry to get outside, we’ve put just a few interesting facts from this OutsideSC story about black rat snakes right up top. Don’t forget to come back when you have a few minutes to enjoy the whole story!
Black rat snakes (and yellow rat snakes) are non-venomous and harmless to humans. Just about every black rat snake we’ve ever encountered has been pretty calm, but they can bite if they feel threatened or harassed. It’s always best to just admire from a few steps away and enjoy the treat when you get to see them!
Black rat snakes (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) are usually a solid charcoal black up top, with a white underside that has ink-spot blotches of black/brown sprinkled in different spots. It’s pupils are round and scales have faint ridges, which gives it a slightly rougher appearance than the similar black racer snake. We’ve got some good pictures of black rat snakes for you below as well.
Black rat snakes have “slightly-keeled” scales which gives them a rougher appearance than the smooth-scaled black racer. Racers also don’t have the checkerboard-pattern underneath that a black rat snake has. In general, racers are a little smaller and leaner than black rat snakes, but that can vary depending on time of year and how well they’ve been eating. Finally, black racers are often more excitable than black rat snakes, so they tend to scamper off more quickly or defend themselves more vigorously than rat snakes. Both racers and rat snakes are harmless to humans though and just living life on this beautiful earth like all of us.
Our unexpected lunch date is a surprise guest we’ve run into many times on our adventures outside in South Carolina, but it is a treat every time we meet.
Like a card-carrying member of the nature paparazzi, I grab my camera and sneak close, ninja style, to capture a few images of the relaxing reptile. The creature’s long, sleek body is about three to four feet long. I notice a couple of quick clues that help me determine that this is a black rat snake and not a similar-looking snake we have in South Carolina, the black racer. First, I can see a faint line on many of the snake’s scales, giving its skin a rough appearance. Scientists call these keeled scales, which are scales with raised ridges down the center. A black racer is completely smooth, without any of those ridged scales, so I’ve already got a great clue that I’m looking at the “weakly keeled” scales of a rat snake.
The second clue that tips me off that this is a black rat snake and not a black racer, is a good glimpse of the snake’s belly as it slithers by. I can easily see that our visitor has a belly like a checkerboard, with blotches of black splashed against a white canvas. A black racer’s underside is usually a solid smoky gray without the checkerboard.
As I crouch in the dust near this beautiful animal, recording as much as I can before it moves on its way, I’m thrilled that we’ve been blessed with the company of a black rat snake on this beautiful day, even as my sandwich dries out in the sun.
After the rat snake moseys its way into its hideout and I go back to choke down my now-dehydrated peanut butter and jelly, I think about how most of the rat snakes our family has encountered have been very mellow. The rat snake’s chill demeanor is one more thing that sets it apart from the black racer. While rat snakes and racers are non-venomous and harmless to humans, both will give you a bite if you provoke them, kind of like your average Chihuahua. Black racers tend to be slightly more bad-tempered than rat snakes when they feel cornered. But don’t just take my word for it. Even the guy who first officially described the rat snake way back in 1836 thought rat snakes were chill and racers were a bit high-strung.
John Edwards Holbrook, a native of Beaufort, South Carolina, documented a number of reptiles like the rat snake in his 1836 book, North American Herpetology; or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. In Volume 1 of Holbrook’s epically long-titled tome, he describes his own experience with the black rat snake and the black racer. “The animal (rat snake) in confinement seemed of an exceedingly mild and gentle disposition; forming in this respect quite a contrast with its fellow prisoners, two individuals of the common Black Snake (aka the Black Racer), who maintained at all times their original wildness.”
So, even Dr. Holbrook would probably agree that a rat snake is a friendlier lunch companion than a black racer, unless you happen to be on the rat snake’s menu. Fortunately, eastern rat snakes stick to food like birds, squirrels, voles, shrews, and perhaps most famously, bird eggs. And rat snakes love chicken eggs, which is why these snakes are often found loitering near chicken coops and why many folks down here in the South call them chicken snakes.
Which brings me back to barbeque sauce. I don’t know if it’s all this talk of tasty chickens, delicious eggs, my dried-out sandwich, or maybe even the thought of the black racer’s saucy attitude, but I’m now contemplating how rat snakes have a lot in common with barbeque sauce here in South Carolina. How so?
Say you order up a barbeque sandwich. What you get depends very much on where you are in our state. Your sandwich is always going to be savory pulled pork, but the sauce can be quite different. In the Upstate, folks tend to prefer that sweet and smoky tomato-based sauce. In the Midlands, you’re likely to get a sandwich slathered in South Carolina’s famous mustard-based barbeque sauce. And down along the coast, the locals often rank tangy vinegar and pepper sauce as supreme.
As it turns out, rat snakes are just like barbeque sauce in South Carolina. Down along the coast, the black rat snake puts on some yellow duds and becomes the yellow rat snake.
Yellow rat snakes have lemon-lime colored skin with long, dark stripes down the length of their bodies, but otherwise they are just the same as the black rat snakes found elsewhere in the state. They have the same relaxed attitude, eat similar things, and even have the same amazing climbing ability. When a rat snake climbs a tree or scales a brick wall, it’s just another day at the office.
So, black rat snakes and yellow rat snakes are just different flavors of the same animal, the eastern rat snake. Pantherophis alleghaniensis is the scientific name for both snakes as I tell this story, but taxonomists enjoy debating scientific names like the rest of us enjoy debating barbeque sauce flavors. Tune in to your favorite 24-hour taxonomy news network to keep up with the latest on the eastern rat snake’s scientific name.
You’ll run into eastern rat snakes throughout South Carolina, but much like our barbeque sauce preferences, the predominant flavor depends on where you are. The black rat snake is most common in the Midlands and the Upstate, while the yellow rat snake roams the coastal areas. Interestingly, a rat snake baby looks just the same whether it is a yellow rat snake or black rat snake.
Juvenile rat snakes are generally gray with dark splotches all along their bodies, like they slithered underneath a leaky ink pen. Rat snake babies also typically have a dark eye stripe running from just behind the eye at a downward angle toward their jaw. But no matter whether it is a black rat snake or a yellow rat snake, the young ones all look alike. It’s kind of like your pulled pork before you put the sauce on it.
Our family has been fortunate to meet up with black rat snakes and yellow rat snakes on our outdoor adventures. So which version of the rat snake do I like best? Much like barbeque sauces, I like them all. The eastern rat snake is yet another of the amazing creatures you just might see when you head OutsideSC.
