Thought when I first saw this pic that it is a Fox snake, other people, on a different forum, also came to this conclusion when a second pic of the snakes head was posted.

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I'll think of something to put here soon.......

It does look like it could be a fox snake, doesn't it? Until you said that, I'd never heard of one before...wish there were more pics posted of the snake we're trying to identify so we could see it better...

...according to a web site I found, fox snakes are a threatened species...http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/snakes.asp?sn=4

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~Juliane~

Here is the other pic..


You're right though, if it is a Fox snake it is endangered and therefore illegal to posess in Michigan.

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~Chris

It is better I think to reach for the stars than to sit flustered because you know you cannot reach them, at least he who reaches will get a good view, a good stretch and perhaps even a low hanging apple for the effort.
-R.A. Salvatore

Thanks for posting the second picture

I found the page on fox snakes from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources... It says that the western fox snake is often called a "pine snake" (now that's confusing...although the scientific name for the western fox snake is very different than the scientific names for the various pine snakes I've been looking at), and it also says that it's the eastern fox snake that's threatened. I guess the western one isn't threatened...

: http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...1210--,00.html


Here's a close-up I found on the internet of a fox snake:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/phot...-fox_snake.jpg

You wouldn't be able to get a post-shed picture of that snake would you? It might help in positively identifying it to see it more clearly. It's hard to know what its true coloration is while it's in shed...

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~Juliane~

i know it doent really matter because it is a mis identified snake and something has to be done, but I found an article that might help with identifying it, on the first page towards the bottom it states that as they are both similar in size the amount of blotches on its back are different
Eatern-(28-43)average is 34
Western-(32-52)-Average is 41
just some fyi, but some post shed pics would help

http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/publicati...ina_gloydi.pdf