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Black Rat, and a nice one.

S

SteveP

New member
Well just went out for a bit of a hike this evening with the wife and her best friend. Lots of beautiful birds, some frogs, and this beautiful black rat.

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Speaking to the naturalist with the conservation dept aparently they have been seeing many of these adult size black rats retaining their juvi patterns and gaining some red and soft brown coloration. This was a very awesome find and a great day in the woods with good company. Little bit of the beauty we had before the short drive home to send you off with.

Steve

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Don't shoot me, I love black rats and I've done some research, around here they naturally um... I don't wanna say the H word, but they do the snake boink boink with corns. Maybe that would explain the pattern retention and orange coloration. I love them, such intellegent and 'aware' little snakes. I don't know if corns are local in your area though to be honest. It just made me think :p
 
They do this is correct, problem is... no corn snakes in Missouri!!! Matter of fact the only related snake in the general "area" is a very isolated population of fox snakes. Those are a little over an hours interstate drive north though.

Steve
 
That's very cool. Black Rats are my favorite snake. It's not unusual for them to have white, yellow, red or orange scales (or skin between the scales consisting of those colors).

Here's one from Central Ohio:

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The awesome part about this particular specimen is that it was SUPER docile once I got it off the ground. I just held it for about 5 minutes when I was releasing it back to the log it wanted to hide under, had to coax it off my arm. Although it looks like I'm restraining its head I have a very loose grip then with a nearly open hand. When they get that size they tend to become very gentle around here anyhow. I've only been bitten by very young rats in the field, never by anything over about 2 feet.
 
Oh and on a side note... it was HOT out yesterday, 97* and 90% or better humidity, hence my profuse sweatyness... and the teeny tiny seed tick were horrible. We all took 2 showers after we got home.
 
tspuckler said:
That's very cool. Black Rats are my favorite snake.
Click to expand...

Mine too :*) Big, very aware snakes. Always a cool find, 'grats Steve

w/c Frederick Co. MD male
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I remember someone selling locality black rats from the Midwest that were "red-skinned" beneath solid black scales; really pretty snakes.
 
Just earlier this evening I caught another snake just exactly like this one only about 3' and a touch brighter in coloration. Due to the fact that the one I caught this evening was out of one of the wife's friends garage and seems to be just as docile I do believe I may have a new addition to my collection.... maybe. Photos of the one caught this evening to come tomorrow.

Steve
 
I just got back from a little herp walk, found a tiny hatchling DOR. Very recent, had fallen out of a tree and got hit by the look of it. I'm gonna have to stop doing these walks, I've seen two hatchling black rats and an enormous easter box turtle squashed on the road. Very depressing. I did manage to rescue a couple frogs from the road though.
 
Here is the smaller and slightly more vivid colored snake I rescued from one of the wife's histerical friends garage. Very beautiful and super gentle. Due to the docile nature we are going to try and keep this snake for use in programs at the local conservation office. The Naturalist there is dearly in love with it.

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Steve
 
Wow. This thread makes me want to get myself a pretty black rat snake.

chris68, I downloaded the photo you posted to use as a desktop pic at work (not to distribute or anything). That snakey is gorgeous. The coworkers' comments on the matter have included the Arabic words for "scary" and "villainous/evil", but I think the snake looks very gentle, and strangely intelligent.
 
I've never seen a black rat with coloration like that before. Neat. I'm sure the naturalist would love a docile black rat. The ones I used to work with weren't aggressive, just skittish.
 
@Taybeh Chaser: No problem with using the picture :)
Steve the coloring on both those black rats is awesome.
 
Thanks y'all. I've been out at the office the last week or so helping her with some different things. Here and there and take every oportunity to handle this beauty.
 
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