sonoran gopher snake/bull snake how to tell them apart

[Ahlsir2]

I have a snake that I bought thinking it was a sonoran gopher snake. I
have never seen picctures of these animals but have read about them more
than almost any snake in my colection. I bought the snake about a year
ago. now the snake is about three feet and looks more like a bullsnake
than any type of gopher snake that I have seen. I have even seen one
sonoran gopher snake in captivity and it didn't look anything like the
snake that I have now. I know that some cross breeding does go on in the
wild, so I may be fighting a losing battle. I have two questions. 1)is
there a way to tell the two snakes apart even when they are just subadults?
and 2)does anyone know where I can find some sonoran gopher snake images
and pics? I have been dying to see what one looks like when full grown but
the only picture I have is a bad one of an albino. I know these snakes are
pretty common, but why aren't there many pictures of them available in
books when there is enough information out there to fill a few good sized
books without pictures?

[Patrick Alexander]

Gopher and bull snakes look very much alike. I have a bull and
have seen and held a few sonoran gophers, and while the gophers were
usually lighter in coloration it is pretty near impossible to tell the
difference. The main differences between sonoran gophers and bull snakes
are adult size and habitat, sonoran gophers generally being around a foot
shorter than bull snakes and living in drier and more westerly places.
Unfortunately, since your snake is captive bred and sub-adult, there's not
much way to tell. There are probably some scutelation differences but I
would not know what they are, look in an Audabon field guide or something
along those lines

Patrick Alexander

[David]

They barely reach into Texas and I've never seen one in person but by
the pictures I've seen they look a little more reddish than the usual
bullsnake. The best way to key your snake is to look at the rostral
scale (furthest forward 'nose' scale). On a bullsnake the rostral
should be nearly twice as long as it is wide whereas on a sonoran the
rostral will only be slightly longer than wide. Also my guide says that
sonorans have rounded saddles while bullsnakes have square shaped
saddles but I've seen bullsnakes with rounded saddles so I wouldn't
count on that.

A good book to clarify (possibly) the issue would be the Field Guide to
Texas Snakes by Alan Tennant. It's cheap (about $15) and a great field
reference with good pictures.

--
David
biawak at eden dot com
----------------------
Sally
sally at eden dot com