Common Name:  Fox Snake or Pine Snake

Scientific Name:  Elaphe vulpina

The pine snake is found most commonly in the western half of the Wisconsin and in the northeast sector.  Our specimen was collected in a boat house on the river in Wausau.  The owner asked to have the snake removed because it regularly coiled among the life preservers.  Actually, it was found in the boat house because that's where the mice lived (one of their favorite foods).  They also eat chipmunks, ground squirrels, small rabbits and will not turn down a frog, a bird, or the eggs of ground-nesting birds.  It kills it's prey by constriction, that is it wraps a coil around the prey and squeezes until the prey suffocates.  Then the prey is swallowed whole, usually head first.

Pine snakes:

• Grow to be 140 cm (about 4 1/2 feet long).

• Mate in the spring (this species lays eggs).  The eggs hatch in August and the young are about a foot long.

• Are non-poisonous.  However, when disturbed in the wild, they will coil, rattle their tails, and strike repeatedly.

• Domesticate readily.

This is a harmless, beneficial animal.  Unfortunately, it's head is copper-colored and it is often killed when mistakenly thought to be a copperhead (a poisonous snake not found in Wisconsin).

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Last Edited 01/03/00