An identification has been made!

Thanks to Dave the snake expert, the snake skin Ms. Jeannie blogged about the other day has been determined to be a black racer, a common constrictor snake found in the Southern US.

Ms. Jeannie is SO glad she did not see this snake in all its real-life glory!

They can reach up to 60″ inches in length, so Ms. Jeannie’s snake skin was well on its way to being a mature adult at 47″ inches long.

Active during the day, racers got their name because they are fast movers. Similiar snakes are the black snake, the rat snake and the king snake, but the racer is the only one of these grouping who will actively (sometimes aggressively) try to get away from humans while the other snakes will just freeze in their tracks or slowly slink off.

It is believed (although scientifically unproven) that snakes evolved from burrowing lizards over 130 million years ago. Through all these years of evolution, snakes have developed a a very sophisticated sense of smell and the ability to feel vibrations in their environment.

At night the black racers like to curl up in old tree stumps, between boards, or other out of the way places which makes sense that the snake skin was found in the shed.

Hopefully, this will be the end of Ms. Jeannie’s snake blogs!

Thanks again to Dave for the helpful info!