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Prairie King Snake


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just going by head size and shape in the last image, I'd say no. I'm interested to see what the herps say

Was it dead?

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Looks more like the old black rat snake, Aka Chicken Snake..

If there is a mouse hole, there is a way in for them.  Make sure he finds a new home far away.

"Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously."

— Hunter S. Thompson

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"Chicken snake" is not a real name, but a colloquial one for a bunch of different species.  This snake is a juvenile western rat snake, what used to be named a black rat snake.  The biologists got together and decided to change the name a few years ago.  The juvies have those badge-shaped blotches; they turn mostly black as they get older.  Everybody in Missouri just calls them black snakes, but they also call speckled king snakes black snakes sometimes, too.  And many people don't realize the young ones aren't black!

Prairie king snakes look slightly similar, but the dark blotches on their backs are a lot narrower front to back than they are side to side.  The blotches look a little like peanuts in the shell rather than badges.

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