Short-tailed snake facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Short-tailed snake |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Lampropeltis
|
| Species: |
extenuata
|
| Synonyms | |
|
|
The short-tailed snake (Lampropeltis extenuata) is a small, harmless snake. It lives mostly underground and is rarely seen. You can only find it in sandy, high areas of Florida. This snake is protected by law because it is considered a threatened species.
Contents
What's in a Name? The Short-Tailed Snake
This snake gets its name because its tail is very short. It makes up less than 10 percent of the snake's total body length. A scientist named A. Erwin Brown gave it its scientific name, Stilosoma extenuatum, in 1890.
Why "Stilosoma extenuatum"?
The first part of its scientific name, Stilosoma, comes from two Greek words: stylos meaning "pillar" and soma meaning "body." This name describes how stiff the snake's body is. Its body is stiff because it has wide, short backbones that don't bend much. The second part, extenuatum, is a Latin word that means "thin" or "slender."
What Does the Short-Tailed Snake Look Like?
The short-tailed snake is a small snake. It is usually about 36 to 51 centimeters (14 to 20 inches) long. The longest one ever found was 65.4 centimeters (about 25 and three-quarter inches) long. It can be as thin as a pencil!
Colors and Patterns
Its back is gray with 50 to 80 dark spots. Sometimes, it has a yellow stripe running down its back. Its belly is white with dark brown spots.
How to Tell it Apart from Other Snakes
This snake looks a lot like other kingsnakes, especially the mole kingsnake. However, the short-tailed snake is smaller and much thinner. Also, the short-tailed snake has six scales above its mouth, while most kingsnakes have seven.
How Does the Short-Tailed Snake Behave?
Scientists don't know much about the short-tailed snake because it is rare and hard to find. It is a burrowing snake, which means it spends most of its time digging and living underground. It rarely comes out above ground, and it's even rarer to see it during the day.
Defense Mechanisms
Like some other snakes, it vibrates its tail when it feels scared or surprised. This can make it sound a bit like a rattlesnake. But you can tell it's not a rattlesnake because it's much thinner and doesn't have a rattle on its tail.
Protected Status
The short-tailed snake gets stressed easily. It doesn't do well when kept as a pet. Because it is a protected species in Florida, it is against the law to bother or capture these snakes. Most of what we know about them comes from studying the few snakes that have been observed by scientists.
What Does the Short-Tailed Snake Eat?
When short-tailed snakes have been studied, they really like to eat black-crowned snakes. These are small, burrowing snakes that also live in Florida. The short-tailed snake will often only eat black-crowned snakes and refuse other small snakes or lizards. This suggests that in the wild, black-crowned snakes might be their only food source.
Where Does the Short-Tailed Snake Live?
You can only find the short-tailed snake in a few counties in central Florida. It prefers to live in pine or oak forests where the soil is sandy. However, it can live in other places too, as long as it can find food and the soil is good for digging burrows.
How Did the Short-Tailed Snake Evolve?
The short-tailed snake is part of a group of snakes that came from rat snakes in the Old World. These ancestors crossed a land bridge into North America over 20 million years ago.
Florida's Ancient Island
More recently, the short-tailed snake lived on what was once called the "Florida Island." This happened millions of years ago when sea levels were higher, separating Florida from the rest of the mainland. It is closely related to kingsnakes and still looks a bit like the mole kingsnakes that also live in Florida.
Ancient Relatives
Scientists have found fossils of an older type of short-tailed snake called Stilosoma vetustum. These fossils are from about 5 to 10 million years ago. How different the short-tailed snake is from its kingsnake ancestors is still something scientists discuss. In 2009, two scientists, Pyron and Burbrink, decided to put the short-tailed snake into the kingsnake group, Lampropeltis. They made this decision based on many clues from their studies and earlier research.
Images for kids
-
A close-up of a short-tailed snake in Hernando County, Florida (2011).
-
A short-tailed snake found in Central Florida (2011).
-
A short-tailed snake in Marion County, Florida.
