Arizona Snakes

Humans, and many other species, are born with a ready-made instinctive fear of snakes.  All it takes to activate the instinct is seeing an adult being afraid of a snake.  Many people overcome their fear after learning which snakes are dangerous, and which ones are harmless.  This is a good thing for snakes, and it’s good for everybody else, because snakes are necessary for a balanced ecosystem.  Snakes help regulate populations of rodents, frogs, and other small animals, and snakes serve as food for many birds, mammals, and reptiles.  The references at the end of this post include field guides in print (Stebbins 1966) and online (Arizona Herpetological Association (AHA), Brennan, 2008).  AHA and HerpDigest provide news and information.

About half the snake species and recognized subspecies in the U. S. are present in Arizona.  Many of them are present in the Agua Fria River Basin, but the only ones I see around Coldwater Farm are garter snakes, gopher snakes, and king snakes.  It’s odd that over the past 50 years, no one has reported seeing a rattlesnake on the Farm.  They are probably present, but most rattlesnakes are shy and rarely advertise their presence.

The photograph shows a California King Snake, a common species of the Agua Fria River Basin and Coldwater Farm.  The photo is from the website of the Arizona Herpetological Association.

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Snake Conservation

Arizona snakes are declining along with the rest of the state’s wildlife.  Their habitats are shrinking and changing as human impacts grow.  The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) lists 27 snake species and subspecies as vulnerable, and 14 as Species of Greatest Conservation Need.  The most critical habitats and the most vulnerable snake populations need protection.

Information on distribution and abundance is necessary for effective protection.  In 2011, the Center for Snake Conservation (CSA) began sponsoring snake counts, a citizen science program for mapping Snakes.  Go to http://www.snakecount.org/ for more information.

Arizona Snake References

AHA (Arizona Herpetological Association):  http://www.azreptiles.com .

AZGFD (Arizona Game and Fish Department):  http://www.azgfd.gov.

Brennan, T.C.  2008.  Online field guide to reptiles and amphibians of Arizona:  http://www.reptilesofaz.com/.

CSA (Center for Snake Conservation):  www.snakeconservation.org.

HerpDigest:  http://herpdigest.org.

International Reptile Conservation Fund:  http://www.ircf.org/.

Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation:  http://www.parcplace.org/.

Stebbins, R.C.  1966.  A field guide to western reptiles and amphibians.  Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA.  279 p.

Arizona Snake Checklist

Most names are linked to photographs and descriptions on the AHA website.  Information about the species without links can be found on the AZGFD website.  I marked vulnerable species (AZGFD) with an asterisk (*).