Welcome to “Red Milk Snake” This is one in a series of student-driven puzzle caches devoted to the wonderful organisms that inhabit Colorado. Enjoy your herpetology lesson on this cold-blooded predator.
I’d love to teach you about a snake, more specifically the red milk snake Lampropeltis triangulum syspila. This snake sometimes can be mistaken for venomous snakes like the venomous coral snake, but milk snakes are harmless. The red milk snake is patterned continuous, red, black, white, black, and because of this pattern, from a bird's perspective, the snake may look “Chopped up.” Almost as if the black and red are blending in with the ground and leaves around it. The snake grows between 50-150 cm when full grown. There are other sub species of Milk snake living in Central America that can grow as long as 175 centimeters. Milk snakes in the United States and Canada don't grow beyond 129 cm.
During the growth cycle the snake molts its skin, in a papery length. The snake sheds its skin because, like all other animals, snakes have to shed their skin too. A big difference between snakes and humans are that humans and other mammals, we are constantly shedding our skin, and snakes shed their skin all at once in one length. When snakes grow, the snake has to grow to the limits of its skin, because its skin molts all at once. The snake can only grow to the size the skin allows. So as soon as the snake reaches their limit of growth for their skin, they then grow new skin under the old skin. And as soon as the skin underneath the old skin is ready, the snake will shed its skin.
While they are predators themselves, there are predators of milk snakes, such as foxes, raccoons, coyotes, bullfrogs, and large birds. Milk snakes prey on smaller creatures, like rodents, lizards, small birds, sometimes other small snakes. The milk snake constricts its prey to kill them. Milk snakes are generally not social, and are rarely seen in the wild, as they spend most of their time underground.
Milk snakes mate in their hibernation spot before rising in the spring. They lay between 2 to 17 eggs in warm leaf litter or rotting logs. They hatch 28 to 39 days after being hatched. When they are young, they are brightly colored, with oranges, purples, reds, and yellows. Their colors become less vibrant as they age. It takes milk snakes 3-4 years before they are fully grown. They can
Red Milk Snakes, live in the western US. Most of the northwestern US is populated by these snakes. In this area the snakes tend to live in a variety of terrains, including forested areas, plains, and rocky slopes. In rocky areas, they can find easy food where mice or lizards live. Also the snakes like to live in cracks in the rocks or under them, and in the morning sunbathing on them. It’s also fascinating to learn that the letter that begins the word elephant also represent the number of blind mice, or domains of life, or stooges.
This snake is beneficial as it eats rodents, such as mice. Without snakes rodents would overpopulate. If the rodents overpopulate it could destroy the ecosystem, and destroy local plantlife. When rodents overpopulate it can set off a chain of events that damages an entire ecosystem. First, much of the plant life gets eaten. Then the animals begin to starve, and move to places that might have vegetation, but aren't necessarily fit for them. For example human populated areas, and close to 1 million animals die from wandering into roads.
So where do Red Milk Snakes come from? Where do snakes come from in general? Well, the earliest snakes date back to ~95 million years ago, and are descended from lizards. The brittle skeletons of snakes make them hard to fossilize, so their representation in the fossil record is limited. However, there are some amazing transitional fossil examples. Take tetrapodophis, which means “four footed snake” in Greek (pictured). Milk snakes and kingsnakes belong to the genus Lampropeltis. In Greek, this means "shiny shields.” The name is appropriate for the genus, which is known for its well-defined, glossy scales. Milk snakes have between 19 and 23 rows of scales. There are 24 recognized subspecies of Milk Snakes. They are gorgeous, and unfortunately you’ll probably never see one in the wild. They will be underneath your feet, sleeping.
