Can anyone identify this snake?

[gm72]

I don't have a picture, but I will do my best to describe it. I saw it the other day in my yard under a bush.

About 18-24" long.
Dark brown body with tan stripes, 2 of them it looked like, running the length of the body on either side of the spine.
About 3/4-1" thick at the midsection.

Anyone?

[KingFisher]

Did the snake look like this?
http://www.thirdeyeherp.com/spuck/ohio/2006/dekay02.jpg
If so, it's a Northern Brown snake and is a native species in PA.

[gm72]

Very, very close, but the tan stripes were more pronounced and thin.

[Allecto]

Very good guess, Kingfisher. Definitely would have been my first guess based on the pattern description. Most Dekay's are smaller than that, though, I think.



Is it possible that due to angle/movement you were a little mistaken about pattern and it looked more like this:

http://www.freewebs.com/snakesofindiana/trt.JPG
This is an Eastern Ribbon snake. The pattern isn't exactly as descibed, but the colors and size seem right (as does the location, these are widespread, and are in PA).

Otherwise, younger Queen Snakes can be pretty variable, and could have possibly had that pattern/length.

http://animalpicturesarchive.com/ArchOLD-7/1191560990.jpg
http://www.snakeemporium.com/queen.jpg

Either of those look like it? I think the ribbon would be the more likely of the two.
None of the snakes mentioned so far are a danger to you, by the way.

Edited to fix a pic.

[gm72]

Eastern Ribbon, no question. So yes, my description was a little off.

Thanks a lot for the help! Much appreciated! Now to read some articles with my daughter so we can learn about it!

EDIT: Now reading some information, the habitat doesn't match. I am reading that they like to live near water, but there is no water nearby, so can it still be this snake?

[Allecto]

Eastern Ribbon, no question. So yes, my description was a little off.

Thanks a lot for the help! Much appreciated! Now to read some articles with my daughter so we can learn about it!

EDIT: Now reading some information, the habitat doesn't match. I am reading that they like to live near water, but there is no water nearby, so can it still be this snake?

If given a choice, particularly during the hotter months, they'd definitely prefer an area where they can live semi-aquatically and have a ready escape route through the water.

However, like garters, they are so abundant in many of their territories that you can usually find them anywhere you can also find frogs and/or toads.

In my experience, any fish pond, well-watered garden, horse trough, house with really leaky water-coolers or hose spigots, or anything remotely similar will soon host a few ribbons or garters to control the frog population.


As far as messing up the pattern... when they're running from you, it is hard to pinpoint the pattern. A lot of snakes are naturally patterned to be visually confusing to watching predators.

[toddnbecka]

I ran across a brown striped garter snake once, quite a few years ago. I was rather surprised at the color, since most of the garter snakes I've seen (locally) were black w/yellow stripes. A quick trip to the library (no internet back in those days) showed it to be a common garter snake, whereas the yellow striped variety are Eastern garter snakes.