Harmless · Native to the United States

Plains hognose snake

Heterodon nasicus (Baird & Girard, 1852)

Also called western hognose snake, plains hog-nosed snake
Data updated October 2026

Plains hognose snake on sandy ground, showing a stout tan body with dark brown blotches
Fig. 1 — Adult on sand, showing the stout build and rows of dark blotches on a tan body.
Side view of a plains hognose snake's head showing the sharply upturned snout
Fig. 2 — The upturned, shovel-like snout is used for digging.

At a glance

A small, thick-bodied snake of sandy Great Plains prairies with an upturned nose for digging out toads and turtle eggs. It puts on a noisy bluff, then plays dead, and almost never bites. It is popular as a pet.

01

Identification

The plains hognose is a stout, heavy-bodied snake with a broad neck and a sharply upturned, shovel-shaped snout. It is gray to tan with a row of dark brown blotches down the back and smaller spots along the sides. A dark line runs from the eye to the angle of the jaw. The belly and the underside of the tail are mostly jet black, often with yellow, white or orange patches. Scales are keeled. Its blotched pattern and loud hissing get it mistaken for a rattlesnake, but it has no rattle.

  1. 01Upturned snout. A keeled, spade-like nose scale turned up at the tip.
  2. 02Black belly. Mostly black underneath, including beneath the tail, often with light patches.
  3. 03Blotched tan back. Many dark blotches (about 35 or more) on a gray-tan body, and no rattle.

Commonly confused with

02

Size

01 ft2 ft3 ft4 ft Typical adult · about 20 in (51 cm)

Most adults measure 15 to 25 inches (38–64 cm), and a few reach about 3 feet. Females grow larger than males: in a Kansas study males averaged about 22 inches and females about 26 inches. Hatchlings are about 5.5 to 8 inches (14–20 cm) long.

03

Range & habitat

Plains hognose snake crossing open sandy prairie
Fig. 3 — Loose, sandy soil it can burrow into is the key to its habitat.

Plains hognose snakes live across the Great Plains, from southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba south to New Mexico and Texas. East of the main range there are isolated populations on sand prairies in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and nearby states. They need well-drained sandy or gravelly soil they can dig into, in prairie, sagebrush grassland, savanna, sandy riverbanks and sand hills. They shelter in burrows they dig themselves or borrow from mammals, and intensive cropland leaves little room for them.

State guides: Texas · Oklahoma

04

Diet & predators

The plains hognose hunts by sight and smell and uses its snout to dig buried prey out of sand, including toads and turtle eggs. Toads and spadefoots are staple foods; it also takes lizards, frogs, salamanders, small snakes, birds and their eggs, small rodents and insects. Enlarged teeth at the back of the upper jaw help it hold and puncture toads, and its saliva is mildly toxic to small prey.

Feeds on

  • Toads and spadefoots
  • Lizards
  • Turtle and bird eggs
  • Small rodents

Preyed on by

  • Hawks and owls
  • American crows
  • Coyotes and foxes
  • Raccoons (eggs and young)
Toad sitting on sandy ground
Prey — toads.
Coyote standing in prairie grass
Predator — coyote.

05

Behavior & seasons

Threatened, a plains hognose puffs up, spreads its head and neck, hisses loudly and makes mock strikes. If that fails it writhes, may vomit or release musk, then rolls onto its back with its mouth open and tongue hanging out, playing dead. Left alone, it soon rights itself and crawls off. Bites are rare. When one does happen, wildlife agencies describe effects limited to the bite area, such as pain, slight bleeding, discoloration or swelling, and say the snake poses no significant danger to people.

It is active by day, mostly in the morning and evening, and retreats into burrows at night. The active season runs from about late April or May to October. It overwinters alone, digging below the frost line by October rather than joining communal dens. Morning basking on roads makes it vulnerable to traffic. When are snakes active in Texas?

06

Reproduction

Plains hognose snakes lay eggs. Mating happens mostly in spring, with some in fall, and females can store sperm over winter. In June or July females lay 4 to 23 white, leathery eggs (published clutch sizes range from 2 to 24) in a shallow nest in loose sand. The eggs hatch from mid-August to September after about 50 to 60 days. Many females breed only every other year. Wild snakes live about 8 years, and captives have lived close to 20.

07

Conservation

The plains hognose is not federally listed and is still found across much of the Great Plains, but it is in trouble at the edges of its range. It is listed as threatened in Illinois, where its sand prairies have been degraded and destroyed, and is probably extirpated from Missouri, with no documented record since 1961. Montana treats it as a Species of Concern after recent records declined. Threats include conversion of native prairie to cropland, road deaths, overgrazing, pesticides, loss of amphibian prey, killing by people who take it for a rattlesnake, and collection for the pet trade.

08

In captivity

Plains hognose snakes are popular pets, and captive-bred animals in many color forms are widely sold, so wild ones do not need to be collected. Their small adult size means they need far less space than most pet snakes: a secure, escape-proof enclosure with deep, loose substrate for burrowing, a hide and a water dish. In captivity they are usually fed small rodents.

Collection for the pet trade is named as a threat to wild populations, and the species is state-listed in Illinois, so check your state’s wildlife rules before acquiring one. Bites from captive hognoses are uncommon; see Behavior & seasons above for what wildlife agencies say about its mildly toxic saliva.

Keep reading

Sources

Data updated October 2026 · How we build these pages