Fast facts
Common name: North American racer
Scientific name: Coluber constrictor
Range in MA: Statewide except Berkshire and Nantucket counties
Conservation status: Common, not listed
Fun fact: Only large black snake in New England with smooth (non-keeled) scales
Description
Racers are long, alert, solid black snakes with smooth scales. Their chins, throats, and lower jaws are white or light gray. Their bellies are solid dark gray to bluish-black. They have dark eyes. Adults range in length from about 36–60 inches.
Hatchlings and juveniles are gray with brown, black, or reddish-brown saddle marks down the center of the back, flanked by smaller spots that grow smaller and denser down the length of the body until blending into a solid, pattern-less tail.
Habitat
Racers are found in a wide variety of habitats including dry grassland and scrub, wooded hillsides, rocky ledges, upland fields, alpine meadows, dry or moist woodlands, and the edges of wetlands. They move between the ground, low trees, and vegetation. Racers bask on shrubs, rocks, ledges, and roads. They can tolerate higher temperatures that drive other snakes to seek shelter.
Life history
Mating takes place in spring. Females deposit clutches of 8–20+ eggs in rotting logs or other damp, warm, concealed sites in June and July. The young, roughly 9–12 inches long at hatching, emerge in August or September. They eat small mammals, insects, amphibians, snakes, bird eggs, and nestlings. Racers are not constrictors, but they can hold prey down with a loop of their bodies. As their name suggests, racers are very fast. They are not venomous, and they typically flee from danger. If they feel trapped they will fight, bite, or rattle their tails in dry leaves to mimic rattlesnakes.