The
Mexican Tiger Rat Snake is one of the longest snakes of the Americas.
Since the snake lives in areas with tall trees and vegetation, their
special color patterns of yellow and black help them blend in perfectly
with the speckled sunlight shining down through the trees.
This particular species of
snake is usually very docile when left alone, but when provoked they
will shake their tails (despite not having a rattle) and hiss very
loudly. They can also inflate their necks dramatically.
If this does not warn off the intruder, then the Mexican Tiger Rat
Snake will strike repeatedly.
Mexican tiger rat snakes are
oviparous and the hatched young resemble their parents.
The colors of young snakes may become either a little darker or paler
as they age, depending on subspecies or population, but there is no
dramatic change in pattern. Some juvenile Tiger Rat Snakes
have deeper golden or orange banding around the midsection; only the
Mexican subspecies retains the deeper color as the adult.
Variability:
There are several subspecies of
this snake, with varying amounts of black and
yellow in their pattern.
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The growth of snakes is indeterminate
-- they continue to grow throughout their lifetimes.
