Milk Snake
”Oh my God, ah! A snake! Help me! A snake!”
~Robert Burke
Species:
Lampropeltis abnorma
Common Name:
Central American Milk Snake
Family:
Colubridae
Seen in:
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Vocalizations:
Description:
The strikingly vibrant Central American Milk Snake is a species of King Snake. It is a tricolor snake, with distinctive repeating bands of red, black, and yellow or white. Their shimmering scales are highly reflective.
Milk Snakes are generalist, nocturnal predators. They subdue their prey by biting and constricting, asphyxiating their victims before swallowing them whole. Juveniles tend to consume smaller prey items such as insects and lizards while larger adults primarily prey upon rodents, birds, and even other snakes! While they are not venomous, they strongly resemble the highly venomous Coral Snake. This is an example of Batesian mimicry in which an animal gains protection from potential predators by resembling a far more dangerous species—typically one that is toxic or venomous. This has led to the common rhyme “Red on yellow, kills a fellow. Red on black, friend of Jack.”
Size Estimates:
1.2m to 1.5m Long
Did you know?
The common name “Milk Snake” refers to a myth that claims these snakes would drink milk from the udders of cows. In reality, Milk Snakes are often drawn to barns due to the presence of mice.
Habitat & Geographical Ranging:
Milk Snakes have the largest distribution of all snakes in the Americas. Species range from a northern extreme of Canada down to Ecuador in South America. The Central American Milk Snake has a range from Southern Mexico to Costa Rica. These Milk Snakes primarily live in humid tropical forests at low elevations. They can also be found in cold, damp, and dark hiding places such as barns, forest floors, and rocky slopes.
On Isla Sorna, a Milk Snake was seen near a small waterfall on a rocky outcrop in the island's interior lowlands.
Individual Variation:
Milk snakes are highly variable across species and subspecies. Current research suggests as many as seven valid species of milk snake: Eastern Milk Snake, Western Milk Snake, Scarlet Kingsnake, Tamaulipa Milk Snake, Mexican Milk Snake, Central American Milk Snake, and the Southern American Milk Snake.
One subspecies known as the Black Milk Snake feature their usual tricoloration as hatchlings before becoming melanistic upon maturity. These Milk Snakes are amongst the largest, growing up to 2.1 meters, and are native to the mountains of Costa Rica and Panama.