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Distribution |
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The seldom black pine snake you find in a small area in eastern Louisiana, southeastern Mississippi, in the southern Alabama and the most northernwestern of Florida. Natural intergrades with the florida pine snake are known from the border area Florida/Alabama. Other subspecies distributions are not reached.
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Description |
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This massive snake is normaly lack black colored. Some individuals or poulations have a rest of pattern on the chin area and the side of the body, wich resembles a little the pattern of the subspecies melanoleucus. On those parts of the body the colors white, brown or red are possible. Total lenght: Up to max 1,88 m (upon older literatur), 1,6 m in the terrarium are reached regulary. The scale are keeld. In the middle of the body there are minimum 29 scale rows, mostly there are 30-31. Specialyties in head scalation: 4 scales in front of the eyes (Prefrontalia). The snout scale is higher than broad (Rostrale - Nasale 1:1,5). Colour mutants in the wild were not decribed in literatur, but from an american breeder one piebald animal was reported on the pituophis forum of kingsnake.com.
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Habiat |
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The black pine snake lives in sandy areas with a little vegetation upon pines and oaks and some ground vegetation. At the Gulf of Mexico it occures in beach areas, too. This snake often lives in rodent tunnels and more seldom in the burows of gopher tortoises. Mostly found below 30m altitude, but some exeptions live in hights up to 150m.
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Way of life |
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A great part of its live the black pine snake stays in rodent tunnels and tortoise burrows. Only seldom they are sighted out of their hiding places. In confrontation with man they often were described as agressiv. This subspecies is threated because of the destroing of its habitats. Some parts of earlier sandareas were converted to fruit plantages and got watered. And the clutches of eggs of this snakes are too little to expand or reenter its lost habitats. In Mississippi and Alabama this subspecies is only alowed to catch with an written permit.
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Diet |
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In habitat this Pituophis mainly feed upon several sorts of rodents up to the size of halfgrown rabits. Some individuals prefere ground sqirrels for food.
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Hibernation |
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The animals hibernate for some weeks. In its habitat the winter are mild.
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Reproduction |
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Aprox. 6-8 weeks after the mating the females deposit a clutch of 4-8 eggs in the size of hen eggs at a suitable place. After hatch the black pine snakes have a lenght of 40 to more than 50 cm. The coloration of the hatchlings can be lack black or black/black-brown with sometimes a whitish or rusty brown rest of patterns on the side. In some populations the rest patterns of the lodingi are so intensive, that the hatchlings can be confused with small northern pine snakes. At the end of its first year the rest pattern vanish more and more and most of the animals become black.
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Keeping in terrarium |
