In general, Racers are all incredibly fast and have similar eating habits. In fact, the Blue Racer Snake is quite possibly the fastest snake in the Americas. There is some debate over this fact, as some individual snakes are faster than others.
In any case, Blue Racer Snakes have been clocked going nearly 4. When threatened or on the hunt, these snakes will speed a long with their heads slightly lifted off the ground. Also, if intimidated, they are known to shake their tail at you to try and imitate a rattle snake. Although Blue Racers are non-venomous, a bite from one of these speedy snakes would definitively be unpleasant.
Blue Racer Snakes are native to North America. They cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Specifically, these snakes are located mostly in central and mid-western American states. In a past life, Blue Racers also inhabited parts of Canada.
In fact, they were quite common. The Blue Racer snake population has dwindled since there has been significant development of the lands the snakes used to roam. So, they have only known to inhabit the United States for over 3 decades. There are several states that are known to inhabit the Blue Racer snake. Other than their limited native geography, there are several other reasons why these snakes are hard to come by.
First, Blue Racer Snakes despise humans and tend to stay far away from areas that are being developed. In essence, they are mean snakes who do not like to be meddled with. They prefer to be left alone. Because of these preference, they tend to avoid human contact and hide in plain sight. Lastly, the population of this species of snake is depleting due to an increase in development over the past century. They prefer certain settings, and not many of those settings are around anymore.
While these snakes are beautiful, they are challenging to locate. If you do chance upon one, be wary of how close you get. They tend to be quite aggressive towards attempted human contact. As mentioned above, these snakes are rather difficult in the wild. Since the Midwest has been growing fairly rapidly over the last several decades, it grows harder and harder to find these types of snakes in the wild. If you noticed, many of the states where these snakes are located are places with large open fields and savannas.
Usually, a Blue Racer snake will stay contained to an area of about acres. They prefer non populous spaces, and they tend to stray away from areas with houses, buildings, and other construction. Usually, if you see one, there are others around. The hardest part is finding one in the first place. That means that instead of wrapping around prey to kill it, this species eats more frequent, smaller meals. The name implies that the snakes are constrictors. The blue racer is active during the day and can be found in semi-open habitats, meadows, or weedy lake edges and marshes.
It's distinguished by its gray or bluish color on its smooth scales. The head is usually darker than the rest of the body and the bellies of these snakes are a milky white color. They do not like it when humans are around and are usually among the first snake species to disappear from developing areas. Adults will eat anything from rodents, frogs, other snakes, and even some small birds when they are active in warmer weather from late April to October. These reptiles can be found in open as well as semi-open habitats.
They prefer to live in savannas, hedge rows, meadows, weedy lake edges and marshes. It is believed that all these habitats are necessary for fulfilling their ecological requirements.
The range of their habitation extends to an area of 25 acres. Adult Blue Racers feed on various songbirds, rodents, smaller snakes and frogs. Different insects such as spiders, worms and crickets are the foods of the Blue Racer Snake hatchlings and juveniles. Large birds of prey including northern harrier, red-tailed hawk and great horned owl are known to prey on this snake.
The Blue Racer hatchlings and eggs are the prey of various carnivorous birds and mammals. Female Blue Racer Snakes mature at 2 years of age, but they cannot reproduce until they become three years old. The males become physiologically mature at 11 months. But they are able to reproduce only after reaching 2 years of age.
These oviparous snakes generally reproduce twice every year. The females build their nests in sand, tree cavities, leaf litters and unoccupied burrows of small mammals.
They lay 6 to 25 eggs in communal dens during late June and leave the dens afterwards. Picture 2 — Blue Racer Snake Photo. These white, oval eggs are 2. The hatchlings do not receive any parental care, but they may remain near the female Blue Racers for a few hours after birth. They are known to hibernate in groups during the cold winter months.
Hibernation generally takes place in rocky mountain areas. These snakes are generally not kept as pets for their aggressive nature. They tend to attack and bite anyone who approaches them. Their large size also makes it difficult to keep them in glass tanks or cages. Due to these reasons, they do not make good pets. Picture 3 — Blue Racer Snake Picture. Picture 4 — Blue Racer Snake Image. Once was in about in the sandhills of Nebraska beside a cattle tank and the second on a sandy road in the sandhills in about Being scared I ran!
My question is, would those have been blue racers and are they normally in any way aggressive like that? Neither snake could have helped but have heard and seen me.
Contrary to what I have read, blue racers can be a bit aggressive. Two of us were bitten on the heels by the little suckers. We had several here last year but I think the dog got a lot of them, this morning I saw one go under my deck near the water hose.
I have told everyone to leave them alone since they help to keep rodent population in check. I was walking home from school one day and found this pretty bluish purple snake on the ground.
Very pretty snake to see. It also was about inches long. I ran across a huge blue racer in Cadillac, MI area summer of It must of been 5feet in length.
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