Description: The glossy snake and its many subspecies are all similar in appearance to gopher snakes. They are small, with narrow, pointed heads, and a variety of skin patterns and colors. They are nonvenomous, nocturnal predators of small mammals and lizards. Most subspecies are shades of tan, brown, and gray with spotted patterns on their smooth, glossy skin and a white or cream-colored unmarked ventral surface. Coloration often varies in relation to the color of the soil in a snake's native habitat.
Habitat: Dry, open sandy areas, coastal chaparral, creosote-mesquite desret, sagebrush flats, and oak-hickroy woodland. FOund from below sea level to 5,500 feet.
Breeding: Glossy snakes are oviparous. They breed in the late spring and early summer and young hatch out in the early fall. Clutches average from 10 to 20 young that are approximately 25 cm long.
Range: Southeastern Texas and extreme southwestern Nebraska west to central California, south into Mexico
Diet: It feeds chiefly on lizards and occasionally takes small mammals.
Behavior: It is a capable burrower and is usually seen on the surface on the early evening hours during the wormer months.
Conservation Status:
Additonal Notes: Occasionally called the faded snake because of its bleached appearance. Captive longevity exceeds 12 years.
Subspecies:
Mojave Glossy Snake (A.o. candida) - 53 to 73 body blotches with 29 - 35 scale rows. Found in the Death Valley area, southern Nevada south through the western Mojave Desert in California. Photo...
Arizona Glossy Snake (A.o. noctivaga) - bldy blotches are alightly wider then interspaces with 25 - 29 scale rows. Found in southern and western Arizona south to central Sinaloa, Mexico. Photo...
California Glossy Snake (A.o. occidentalis) - dark with 51 to 75 dark brown blotches and 27 scale rows. Found from the San Joaquin Valley south into Baja California. Photo...
Painted Desert Glossy Snake (A.o. philipi) - usually less then 200 ventrical scales, 53 to 80 body blotches and 27 scale rows. Found in southeastern Utah, northeastern and southeastern Arizona, and western New Mexico. Photo...
