[ft-l] Hike report (Orlando to Okeechobee)

[ft-l@mailman.backcountry.net (Cricket)]

I'm pretty sure the snakes you saw were yellow rat snakes.  Check out the
photos at
http://gto.ncsa.uiuc.edu/pingleto/herps/images/Snakes/yellowrat2.jpg and
http://encarta.msn.com/find/MediaMax.asp?pg=3&ti=06E01000&idx=461530237 and
see if they look like the ones you saw.

Yellow rat snakes have two phases - yellow and red.  They can be quite
large, I've seen them up to about 6 feet long and 2-3 inches around.  They
are pretty common in the woods of Florida.  They can be found east of the
Mississippi River and south from about North Carolina. They are good
climbers and can swim.  They also make good pets, if you are into that sort
of thing.  :-)

They are usually a pale, glistening yellow or golden brown with 4 black or
dark brown stripes - 2 on the back and 1 on either side.  During their red
phase they are shiny brick red in color and particularly beautiful.  They
are constricting snakes and feed primarly on live prey - birds, small
squirrels, mice and rats. They are wonderful snakes and help control the
rodent population.

Cricket

>
> Questions:
>
> 1. We saw two yellow snakes with black stripes.
>    One was about 6 ft long and the other was 4 ft
>    long. What kind of snake was it ?
>