North American Racer vs. Central Ratsnake

Two big black snakes with white chins. A Racer is slender, satiny-smooth and glossy, plain black or slate above with a plain belly, and it flees fast with its head held high. A Ratsnake is thicker and flat-bottomed like a loaf, its scales weakly keeled and dull, often with pale skin or the old blotched pattern showing between them, and its belly is checkered. Ratsnakes climb and freeze; racers run. Young of both are grey with dark blotches.

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

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