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Texas blue indigo snake7/31/2023 The sides of the head, throat, and chin are usually reddish or orange-brown in color, and while juveniles are very similar to adults their heads are much redder. The eastern indigo snake is sexually dimorphic, but in this case, males grow larger than females with average sizes of 5 ft for males and 4.5 ft for adult females. When cornered or threatened the eastern indigo snake flattens its head, hiss and vibrates the tail, producing a rattling sound trying to mimic venomous rattlesnakes. But even so, these snakes rarely bite. Large specimens over 8.5 ft (2.6 m), can weigh up to 11 lb (5 kg) but even though indigo snakes are large some extremely large specimens of the co-occurring and highly venomous eastern diamondback rattlesnakes ( Crotalus adamanteus) can outweigh them. They inhabit a variety of ecosystems including dry glades, xeric sand ridges, stream bottoms, flatwoods, hammocks, cane fields, riparian thickets, and higher ground with drained sandy soils.Įastern indigo snakes are large smooth-scaled and shiny bluish-black colored snakes, including their belly. They are the longest non-venomous snake native to the United States, ranging in size from 60 to 84 inches (152-213 cm), with the maximum recorded specimen measuring 9.2 ft (2.8 m), closely followed by the black rat snake( Pantherophis obsoletus). They are known for their use of gopher tortoise burrows either for nesting and refuge from intense heat during the hot summer months or as a winter den. These snakes are active strictly by day, in the summer they stay preferably near wetland edges, moving long distances to drier habitats into their winter dens in sandhill habitats. Nowadays the eastern indigo snake has been extirpated from Mississippi and Alabama, and is found only in peninsular Florida and southeast Georgia, persists in the Florida panhandle, but in much lower numbers than in the past.
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