Female, 3 years old, Born May 2005
Fave Food: Rodents
Fave Toy: Burrowing under her substrate.
How did Fantom get her name?
Her name was inspired by her black colouring.
Where does Fantom come from?
Fantom came to Earth Rangers in 2007 from a captive breeding program.
Does Fantom go out to schools?
Yep, she participates in our school shows, festivals and events.

fun facts
  • When scared they'll make a loud hissing noise and quickly vibrate the end of their tail against the ground. The shaking of the tail, especially in dry vegetation, often sounds like a rattlesnake.
  • They mainly eat rodents but will also snack on bird eggs which they swallow whole. When the egg is about 8 inches down its neck, they’ll press their body against the ground which breaks the egg open.
  • They're quite long and can grow up to 8 feet (though most of them are around 5 feet).
  • They're members of Pituophis, a North American genus of non-venomous, colubrid snakes that are commonly called gopher snakes, pine snakes, and bull snakes.
  • They spend the majority of their time hanging out underground in root channels of rotting pine stumps where it's dark and cozy.
  • They are found in the United States from south-western Alabama to eastern Louisiana.
  • They have dark colouring which is how they got their name!

Black Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi)

Average Life Span:

15-20 years

Average Length:

122-163 cm

Average Weight:

1.8 to 3.6 kg

Description

  • Black Pine Snakes are large, powerful constrictors that are usually between 1-1.5 metres long.
  • They range in colour from black and brown banded to nearly all jet-black. Most have a lighter area around the chin with the underside of the chin often being white.
  • They have round pupils and a somewhat pointed snout covered by a large triangular, almost cone-shaped, scale. They have 4 large scales on top of their snout, whereas most snakes only have 2.

Location / Habitat

  • The only place they can be found is in the United States from south-western Alabama to eastern Louisiana.
  • They prefer habitats in longleaf pine forests where there is sandy, well-drained soil, an open canopy, and a lot of plants on the ground.

Food

  • They dine on small mammals, birds, and bird / reptile eggs. Like the Northern Pine Snake, they have a fondness for Pocket Gophers which they hunt by forcing their way into their underground burronws. It's actually their dependence on these gophers that likely limits them to living in sandy soiled habitats.

Breeding

  • They mate during the spring. About 6 weeks after breeding the female will lay between 3-8 eggs in a burrow or under a large rock or log. The eggs hatch in September to October and out come baby snakes which are around 30 to 45 cm long.

Threats

Status:Candidate for Federal Listing as Threatened or Endangered
  • Much of the longleaf pine habitat is being lost to urban development or being turned into agricultural fields. This decrease in habitat is causing the Black Pine Snake's limited distribution to dwindle even further.
  • Most of the remaining longleaf pine forests found on private land are in unconnected areas. When patches of available habitat become separated beyond the dispersal range of a species, the populations are more sensitive to genetic, demographic, and environmental variability and extinction becomes a possibility.
  • Forest management strategies that suppress fires and remove fallen trees and stumps also has a negative affect on the habitat of Black Pine Snakes (as they lose the spots they like to live in).
  • Other threats facing these snakes are being hit by cars and intentional killing by humans.

Find out more:

http://herpetology.tamu.edu/Fitzgerald/Publications.htm

http://www.carcnet.ca/english/index.html