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Species of snake

Pantherophis vulpinus, commonly known as the foxsnake or the eastern fox snake, is a species of nonvenomous rat snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to North America.

Between about 1990 and 2011, foxsnakes were sometimes divided into two species, with P. vulpinus as the western foxsnake, and P. gloydi as the eastern foxsnake. A 2011 paper by Crother, White, Savage, Eckstut, Graham and Gardner proposed instead that the Mississippi River be established as the species boundary between two species of foxsnakes, and that those found to its east be considered P. vulpinus (including those previously known as P. gloydi) and those found to its west be given the new name P. ramspotti. This proposed that P. vulpinus, which had been known as the western foxsnake, become known as the eastern foxsnake, and the new P. ramspotti become known as the western foxsnake. and sometimes called the eastern foxsnake. The specific name for the junior synonym gloydi is in honor of American herpetologist Howard K. Gloyd.

Other common names for P. vulpinus include eastern foxsnake, foxsnake, and fox snake.

Adult eastern foxsnakes are in total length (including tail) and have a short, flattened snout. Dorsally, they are usually light golden brown with dark brown spots and they have a yellow checkerboard pattern on the belly. Like most North American snakes, foxsnakes are not venomous. Foxsnakes earned their name because the musk they give off when threatened smells similar to a fox.

P. vulpinus is found in the upper midwestern United States east of the Mississippi River. P. v. gloydi is found in the eastern Great Lakes region. Both P. v. gloydi and P. v. vulpinus live in the state of Michigan. P. v. vulpinus lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where it is sometimes known as the pine snake, and P. v. gloydi lives in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. P. v. gloydi can also be found in Ohio in the United States, and in Western Ontario in Canada.

The preferred natural habitats of P. vulpinus are varied, including open woodland, prairie, farmland, pastures, and marshlands. They can also give off a stinky musk from glands near their tail, which makes them less appetizing to other animals. This musk has an odor similar to that of the red fox; this is the origin of the common name "fox snake". As a last resort, these snakes may hiss loudly and strike at the threat.

Foxsnakes mate in April and May. Males wrestle with one another for the right to mate with females. In June, July or August, the female will bury a clutch of seven to 27 eggs under a log or in debris on the forest floor. These hatch after an approximately 60 day incubation period. Young fox snakes are usually much lighter in color than adults. Like all reptiles, P. vulpinus reproduces sexually and is an r strategists according to r/K selection theory. An adult female may lay between 7 and 29 eggs, which generally hatch after about 60 days. Eggs are usually laid under logs, or in rotting wood or humus. Foxsnakes are strict carnivores. They are often a welcome sight around farmlands, where they consume a large number of rodents that can otherwise be harmful to crops, or transmit parasites to captive animal stocks, though they are opportunistic feeders and will sometimes also eat fledgling chickens or eggs, which sometimes leads them to be erroneously called the chicken snake. Their primary diet consists of mice and other small rodents, but they will take any prey small enough to swallow whole, including young rabbits, frogs, fledgling birds and eggs. As constrictors, they subdue their prey by squeezing it between their coils.

The eastern foxsnake is listed as "Least Concern" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species, In Michigan it is listed as a "Threatened Species" by the DNR and is protected by state law. In Ontario the species is listed as "Threatened Provincially and Nationally".