Southern Black Racer
Coluber constrictor priapus
Size
23–50 in
Status
Common
Venomous
No
Region
Southern Indiana
A fast, sleek, all-black snake that seems to vanish when approached. Harmless, alert, and a familiar sight in southern Indiana.
Identification
A slender, smooth-scaled snake, satiny black above with a white or gray chin and throat and large eyes. Adults can exceed 4 feet. Juveniles are strongly blotched and look completely different from the plain-black adults.
Habitat & Diet
Prefers open and edge habitats — old fields, woodland borders, and brush — where it hunts by sight at great speed. Despite the name it overpowers rather than constricts prey: rodents, frogs, lizards, insects, and other snakes.
Conservation in Indiana
Common in suitable habitat in southern Indiana. It is nervous and fast to flee, and will bite if cornered, but is harmless.
Similar Species & Taxonomy
Uniform satiny black with a white chin and large eyes, the racer moves fast and is often confused with the Black Kingsnake and Gray Ratsnake; it has smooth scales but is slimmer, with no pale speckling or blotches. A racer (family Colubridae). Coluber constrictor is one wide-ranging species with many subspecies; Indiana's is the Southern Black Racer (priapus). The whipsnakes once placed in Coluber are now the genus Masticophis.
United States Range Map Distribution
Distribution in Indiana
