By: Andrew Nickerson

They are found in a variety of habitats. But their habitat is dependant on there location. Their habitats in Florida are sand hills, oak scrub, sand pine scrub, mangrove swamps, wet prairies, cabbage palm live-oak hammock, pine flat woods, sugarcane fields, citrus groves, and rock strewn canals. In northern parts of Florida and Georgia they mostly rely on Gopher Tortoise holes.

They are a non venomous species of snake. They have immunity to the venom of sympatric snakes. Sympatric means in that area. They are colored a indigo color to gunmetal black with a chin that is normally orange-red. They are only found in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. They are the longest snake in North America growing up to 8 feet and 7.1 inches. The Latin translation for their name is forest ruler.

They are a threatened species right now. They are thinking now that they are extinct in Mississippi and Alabama but are still in the process of checking it. These snakes are sometimes confused as a snake called the black racer when they are young. The reason why these snakes are threatened is because the gassing of the Gopher Tortoise holes to kill Diamondback Rattlesnakes. As I have said these snakes live in these holes for protection from the winter weather and when they are gassed they are killed by it. These snakes are all through the Everglades and the Indian River Lagoon.

They have a high adult survivorship. High longevity Low juvenile survivorship Male biased-sexual dimorphism, dimorphism: the condition in which the males and females in a species are morphologically different. Males are said to be sexually mature at two to three years of age while females it is three to four years of age. Females will lay a single clutch of 4 to 14 large eggs.

They are indiscriminate carnivores meaning they will eat anything they can overpower including there own kind. Their have been cases of cannibalism but it is very rare for it to happen. They will eat toads, snakes, lizards, juvenile gopher tortoises, fishes, frogs, birds and their eggs, and small mammals.

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Class: Reptilia Order: Squamata Family: Colubridae Subfamily: Colubrinae Genus: Drymarchon Species: Drymarchon couperi

guide/Drymarchoncouperi.htm guide/Drymarchoncouperi.htm osnake.pdf osnake.pdf -snakes.htm -snakes.htm