Description: Adult eastern foxsnakes are 3 to 6 feet in total length (including tail) and have a short, flattened snout. Dorsally, they are usually light golden brown with dark brown spots and they have a yellow checkerboard pattern on the belly. Like most North American snakes, foxsnakes are not venomous. Foxsnakes earned their name because the musk they give off when threatened smells similar to a fox

Habitat: The preferred natural habitats of P. vulpinus are varied, including open woodland, prairie, farmland, pastures, and marshlands.

Range: P. vulpinus is found in the upper midwestern United States east of the Mississippi river. The geographic range of the closely related western fox snake (Pantherophis ramspotti) is west of the Mississippi river. Although the two species do overlap along the eastern side of the Mississippi River, there is no intergrade zone.

Found in these States: IL | IN | MI | MO | OH | WI

Diet: Foxsnakes are strict carnivores. Their primary diet consists of mice and other small rodents, but they will take any prey small enough to swallow whole, including young rabbits, frogs, fledgling birds and eggs. As constrictors, they subdue their prey by squeezing it between their coils.

Reproduction: Foxsnakes mate in April and May. Males wrestle with one another for the right to mate with females. In June, July or August, the female will bury a clutch of seven to 27 eggs under a log or in debris on the forest floor. These hatch after an approximately 60 day incubation period. Young fox snakes are usually much lighter in color than adults.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, tolerance of a degree of habitat modification, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

Taxonomy: