I came across this Great Basin Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer deserticola) on a stretch of old Highway 395 just south of Big Pine a few weeks ago while I was spending some time motoring around the eastern Sierra Nevada in inland California before travelling down to Santa Barbara for the 38th Society of Ethnobiology meeting (see my report here).

This specimen was doing its best to gather some heat on a cool spring morning by pretending to be a crack in the road … in fact I almost drove over it because I thought it WAS a crack in the road.

Like all snakes, Gopher Snakes suffer for their reputation and the general ignorance of most people. Gopher Snakes are non-venomous constrictors, i.e. they suffocate their prey. There are elements of their behaviour that attract suspicion that they are rattlesnakes, as the DesertUSA website advises:

Alerted to danger, the snake coils up, vibrates its tail and hisses a warning (Pituophis means “phlegm serpent” in reference to this loud hiss). The hiss is produced by use of an organ in the mouth called the glottis. The glottis opens and closes rapidly, giving a fair imitation of the rattle of a rattlesnake. The Gopher snake can also spread and flatten its head, thereby resembling a rattler even more. An unsure predator mistakes this behavior and the somewhat triangular head of the Gopher snake for a rattlesnake and backs off from its pursuit.”

One aspect of their behaviour that I didn’t catch – and would very much like to–is this males combat dance–again as described at the DesertUSA page:

The combat “dance” between male gopher snakes, which may last up to an hour, has been mistaken for a courtship display between males and females. Head rearing, hissing, intertwining like Grecian wrestlers, and slithering along the ground with upraised heads, the combatants focus on the task at hand, oblivious even to human onlookers.

In Winter, gopher snakes hibernate, retreating to communal dens, sometimes sharing the lair with rattlesnakes, whipsnakes or racers. But in the breeding season, males vigorously defend their territories against all competing males.