Odd black rat snake

[TRACY]

Saw this 6 footer on a back road and thought it was a rattler at first and when I got out of the truck realized the light was messing with me and it was a good ole rat snake. I only take them home if there dead or near dead. This one was odd in the fact that it's muscles were contracted every few inches and it gave it a wavy appearance. Seen hundreds and never one like this. It tracked me and had no signs of being run over or injured. Anyone ever seen a snake appear like this.  Sorry for the low quality phone pics

Tracy

[Chippintuff]

Are you sure it had not been eating eggs, frogs or baby birds?

WA

[osage outlaw]

That's rippled all the way to the tail.  Its not from anything it ate.  Looks like muscle contractions to me.  I wonder if it got its head ran over just a little and messed up its nervous system.

[Pat B]

The ones around hear do that all the time. I saw a 3'er in my driveway yesterday that was zigzag like that. After I drove over him I saw him go off the side of the driveway. Any time I see one on my driveway it is like that.

[Badly Bent]

Could the heat from the pavement cause that?

[Aaron H]

^^ that's kinda what I was thinking

[TRACY]

I'm going to drive by there today and see if it's still there in case it was injured. I've never seen one all contorted like that before. It was in a shady spot with little to no traffic most days. There was a grey squirrel on the road three feet from it. It could've been run over but no visible signs.

Chip, thought it had eaten something also at first, but it was a lot different.


Pat, was it contorted like this one before or after you run it over?

It was 92 here yesterday, but the snake was in the shade down in a valley so it actually felt good.

Thanks for the responses!

Tracy

[nclonghunter]

I have heard they do that when getting ready to shed their skin.......I wouldn't swear to it!

[osage outlaw]

Tracy, google rippled rat snake.  I guess its some kind of natural defense mechanism.  It freezes in place.  I copied and pasted this from one of the sites.

A Rat Snake on the other hand freezes in place 'assuming' if it doesn't move we won't notice it. Pictures of Rat Snakes on the computer showed the same ripple effect in their camouflaged position.

[lebhuntfish]

I have heard they do that when getting ready to shed their skin.......I wouldn't swear to it!

+1, seen them do that a lot on the farm.Patrick

[Pat B]

I straddled the snake so I didn't actually hit it with a tire. That is how they act on my gravel driveway so its not the heat.

[TRACY]

I have heard they do that when getting ready to shed their skin.......I wouldn't swear to it!

Hadn't thought of that. Usually the eyes get milky colored before shedding from my experience.

Clint that makes sense, just never had one do that. I usually pick them up and check them out too. That's exactly what it looked like(pic below)

Seen them coil and raise their heads and a lot of times they will "rattle" their tail.

Learn something new all the time!

Thanks!

Tracy

[Zuma]

Not saying other posts are not accurate
but when I see them run over by light weight
cars they look like that too. I usually get them
off the road although I think they are done for.

[le0n]

maybe he got lazy on a few:

[Pat B]

I se them with this rippling all the time and its not because they have been hit by a car. Most of the time I see them on my property they are zigzag.