''Pantherophis vulpinus'', commonly known as the foxsnake or the eastern fox snake, Crother BI (editor) (2008). ''Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico''. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles Herpetological Circular 37. 84 pp.
PDF
at SSAR. Accessed 4 July 2011. is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of nonvenomous rat snake in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Colubridae Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on ever ...

. The species is native to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Taxonomy

Between about 1990 and 2011, foxsnakes were sometimes divided into two species, with ''P. vulpinus'' as the western foxsnake, and '' P. gloydi'' as the eastern foxsnake. A 2011 paper by Crother,

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

Savage Savage may refer to: Places Antarctica * Savage Glacier, Ellsworth Land * Savage Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Savage Ridge, Victoria Land United States * Savage, Maryland, an unincorporated community * Savage, Minnesota, a city * Savage, Mi ...

, Eckstut,

Graham Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan G ...

and Gardner proposed instead that the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

be established as the species boundary between two species of foxsnakes, and that those found to its east be considered ''P. vulpinus'' (including those previously known as ''P. gloydi'') and those found to its west be given the new name '' P. ramspotti''. This proposed that ''P. vulpinus'', which had been known as the western foxsnake, become known as the eastern foxsnake, and the new ''P. ramspotti'' become known as the western foxsnake. Thus, ''P. vulpinus'' is sometimes called the western foxsnake and sometimes called the eastern foxsnake.

Etymology

The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''vulpinus'', (meaning "fox-like") is in honor of Rev. Charles Fox (1815–1854), collector of the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

, an academic play on words.

Common names

Other common names for ''P. vulpinus'' include eastern foxsnake, foxsnake, and fox snake.

Description

Adult eastern foxsnakes are in total length (including tail) and have a short, flattened snout. Dorsally, they are usually light golden brown with dark brown spots and they have a yellow checkerboard pattern on the belly. Like most

n snakes, foxsnakes are not venomous. Foxsnakes earned their name because the musk they give off when threatened smells similar to a

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

Geographic range

''P. vulpinus'' is found in the upper midwestern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

east of the

Mississippi river The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The geographic range of the closely related western fox snake (''Pantherophis ramspotti)'' is west of the

. Although the two species do overlap along the eastern side of the Mississippi River, there is no intergrade zone. Weinell, Jeffrey L.; Austin, Christopher C. (2017). "Refugia and Speciation in North American Scarlet Snakes (''Cemophora'')". ''

Journal of Herpetology A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

'' 51 (1): 161–171.

Habitat

The preferred natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s of ''P. vulpinus'' are varied, including open

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

, prairie,

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

s, and

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

lands.

Behavior

Strong and agile, fox snakes are excellent climbers, but are more often found on the ground. Fox snakes are diurnal, but may hunt at night during the hot summer months. Like all snakes, fox snakes are cold-blooded and cannot adjust their own body temperature; so these snakes often hide in burrows or under logs or rocks to stay safe from extremely hot or cold weather. In winter, they

hibernate Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It most ...

underground, where they can avoid freezing temperatures. These docile, harmless snakes use several defensive behaviors against

predators Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

. They may shake their

tail The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, r ...

s in dry leaves, sounding like

rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small anim ...

s. Schmidt KP, Davis DD (1941). ''Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 365 pp. (''Elaphe vulpina vulpina'', pp. 153-155, Figure 42 + Plates 5, 17). They can also give off a stinky musk from glands near their tail, which makes them less appetizing to other animals. This musk has an odor similar to that of the

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the Order (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...

; this is the origin of the common name "fox snake". As a last resort, these snakes may hiss loudly and strike at the threat.

Diet

Foxsnakes are strict carnivores. Their primary diet consists of

mice A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

and other small

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

s, but they will take any prey small enough to swallow whole, including young

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s, fledgling

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s and eggs. As constrictors, they subdue their prey by squeezing it between their coils.

Life history

Foxsnakes mate in April and May. Males wrestle with one another for the right to mate with females. In June, July or August, the female will bury a clutch of seven to 27 eggs under a log or in debris on the

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

floor. These hatch after an approximately 60 day incubation period. Young fox snakes are usually much lighter in color than adults. They are often a welcome sight around farmlands, where they consume a large number of rodents that can otherwise be harmful to crops, or transmit

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

s to captive animal stocks, though they are opportunistic feeders and will sometimes also eat fledgling

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

s or eggs, which sometimes leads them to be erroneously called the chicken snake.

Conservation status

The eastern foxsnake is listed as "Least Concern" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species, and it is not listed on

CITES CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

. While this snake is common within its range, many states have protected it, primarily to prevent over-collection for the pet trade.

References

External links

''Pantherophis vulpinus'' (Baird & Girard , 1853)
The Reptile Database
''Pantherophis vulpinus'' (Eastern Foxsnake, Eastern Fox Snake)
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
''Pantherophis vulpinus'' (Baird & Girard, 1853) – Eastern Foxsnake
The Illinois Natural History Survey
Western Fox Snake (''Pantherophis vulpinus'')
Reptiles and Amphibians of Iowa {{DEFAULTSORT:Pantherophis vulpina Colubrids Reptiles described in 1853 Taxa named by Spencer Fullerton Baird