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Wildlife Striped Whipsnake Page
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Striped Whipsnake
Masticophis taeniatus
Habitat: Habitats in Colorado include semidesert shrublands in broad basins, piņon-juniper woodlands and shrublands on mesa tops and rocky slopes, and intermittent stream courses and arroyos in the bottoms of canyons.
Food and Predators: These snakes feed opportunistically on various small vertebrates and insects such as grasshoppers and beetles; lizards are a mainstay of the diet.
Predators in northern Utah and probably Colorado, too, include larger whipsnakes and racers, the common raven (Corvus corax), red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), and long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata) (Smith and Murphy 1973; Parker and Brown 1980).
Recognition: Dark stripe centered on each of first four dorsal scale rows on each side of body; underside of tail pink in adults; dorsal scales smooth (unkeeled), in 15 rows at midbody; eyes large; head scales with pale borders; lower preocular scale small, wedged between upper lip scales; anal scale divided; eyes large, with a prominent ridge above each.
Distribution: Southern Washington and southern Idaho south through eastern California, Nevada, Utah, western Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and western and central Texas into central northern Mexico (Camper 1996); ranges to an elevation of 10,100 feet (3,080 m) in southern California (Stumpel 1995). Occurs throughout western Colorado at elevations up to about 7,000 feet (2,135 m) in the north and 8,100 feet (2,470 m) in the south.
Status: This species is not listed.
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Species Occurrence Tool
(*) NDIS has no county occurrence data for fish at this time.
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