Harmless · Native to western North America

Gopher snake

Pituophis catenifer (Blainville, 1835)

Also called bullsnake (Great Plains form)
Data updated October 2026

Gopher snake moving across sparse, flowering ground, with dark blotches on a yellow-tan body
Fig. 1 — Adult on open ground. Dark blotches line a yellowish to tan back.
Gopher snake head close-up with its forked tongue extended beside a red rock
Fig. 2 — Flicking the tongue to read scent. The snout is narrow and slightly pointed.

At a glance

A large, harmless constrictor of western and central North America. It hunts pocket gophers and other rodents, often in their burrows. When threatened it hisses loudly and may vibrate its tail like a rattlesnake.

01

Identification

Gopher snakes are long and fairly heavy, with a tan, cream, yellow or orange-brown body marked with 33 to 73 large brown or black blotches. The tail has alternating yellow and black bands. The scale at the tip of the snout is enlarged, though not upturned. The scales are keeled. Color and pattern vary by region: Great Basin snakes, for example, have black markings on the neck and reddish-brown body blotches.

  1. 01Large dark blotches. Brown or black saddles along a yellowish to tan back, with banding on the tail.
  2. 02Enlarged snout scale. A slightly enlarged scale at the snout tip, used to push through loose soil.
  3. 03No rattle. It may coil, hiss and buzz its tail like a rattlesnake, but the tail ends in a point.

02

Size

01 ft2 ft3 ft4 ft5 ft6 ft7 ft8 ft Typical adult · about 5 ft (152 cm)

Most adults measure 37 to 72 inches (94–183 cm). In Grand Canyon National Park they reach 92 inches, and the largest on record measured 105 inches (267 cm). Hatchlings are about 12 to 14 inches (30–35 cm) long.

03

Range & habitat

Gopher snake coiled in short grass with its head drawn back, trees and a fence behind
Fig. 3 — Open grassland is prime habitat, including fields near buildings where rodents are common.

Gopher snakes range from south-central British Columbia, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan through the western and central United States to Baja California and northern Mexico. The bullsnake, the Great Plains form, lives east of the Rocky Mountains and the Pecos River, mostly west of the Mississippi River, but reaches east into Wisconsin and Illinois.

They use open grassland, prairie, open woodland and woodland edges, desert scrub, chaparral and farm fields. In Grand Canyon they range from the forested rims to desert in the inner canyon.

State guides: Texas · Oklahoma

04

Diet & predators

Gopher snakes are constrictors and rodent specialists. Pocket gophers, rats, mice, rabbits and ground squirrels make up most of the diet, along with occasional birds, eggs, lizards and snakes. They use the snout to shovel loose soil while digging after prey.

Feeds on

  • Pocket gophers
  • Rats, mice and ground squirrels
  • Young rabbits
  • Birds and their eggs

Preyed on by

  • Hawks, including red-tailed hawks
  • Coyotes and foxes
  • Kingsnakes and other large snakes (young)

05

Behavior & seasons

Gopher snakes are active from about April to November, mostly by day, though they also move at night in warm weather. They spend much of their time underground in burrows; one study found individuals below ground up to 90 percent of the time.

Their defensive display is famous. A threatened gopher snake coils, hisses loudly by forcing air past a ridge of cartilage in front of its windpipe, and rapidly vibrates its tail. The effect can be convincing enough that predators and people mistake it for a rattlesnake. When are snakes active in Texas?

06

Reproduction

In the Great Plains, gopher snakes mate in April and May. Females lay eggs in soft earth under large rocks or logs. Clutches range from 2 to 24 eggs, with about 13 on average in the Great Plains, and some females lay two clutches a year. The eggs hatch after 65 to 75 days.

07

Conservation

The gopher snake is listed as Least Concern and is stable across most of its range, though some island forms are more vulnerable. In Kansas it is considered one of the most beneficial snakes because it eats so many rodents.

Keep reading

Sources

Data updated October 2026 · How we build these pages