Someone lucky enough to spot this snake in northern Wyoming along a path or rock outcropping may think it’s fake and that some kid tossed it out there as a prank.
But the northern rubber boa with its stubby tail, stubby head and rubber-like appearance wasn’t smuggled into the country from China and sold at a dollar store.
It’s a real-deal Wyoming constrictor, Casper College biology instructor Charlotte Snoberger told a packed Werner Wildlife Museum lecture room in Casper this past week.
These aren’t the huge, man-eating boa constrictors featured in Hollywood movies, she said.
“They are not 10 feet long, but they are still a boa. They really do look like a rubber snake,” she said. “The first one of these I saw I thought was a rubber snake.”
Snoberger, a herpetologist, worked eight years for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department before joining the college a few years ago. Her lecture on snakes outlined the species and subspecies of the reptiles found in Wyoming.
Wyoming Game and Fish reports at least 14 species and subspecies of snakes are found in the state.
Among the serpents within the state’s borders is one that turns blue when it dies and another that puts on an Oscar-worthy performance at fake dying.
Herpetologist Charlotte Snoberger shared information about Wyoming’s snakes at a presentation in Casper. She teaches at Casper College. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The prairie rattler is one of two venomous snakes in Wyoming. (Courtesy Charlotte Snoberger) 
Bullsnakes are often found in trees, Charlotte Snoberger said. This one-eyed on is closing in on a robin’s egg. (Courtesy Charlotte Snoberger) 
Charlotte Snoberger showed her audience the difference between keeled and unkeeled snake scales. (Courtesy Charlotte Snoberger)
Not Just Rattlers
While many people may be aware of the two venomous snake varieties in the state — the prairie rattlesnake and midget faded rattlesnake — there are several more rarely seen non-venomous snakes that populate various regions of Wyoming, she said.
As part of her presentation, Snoberger talked about “keeled” and “unkeeled” snake scales and how examining a snake scale to see whether it has a little ridged line or keel running through the middle helps with identification of the species.
The northern rubber boa feels smooth when held, has no ridge on its scales, and is characterized as “unkeeled,” she said. Like any constrictor, the small foot-and-a-half snake when held likes to wrap itself around the arm or other appendage.
“They have these little-bitty beady eyes that are kind of gold-colored, and they actually have a vertical pupil like a cat’s eye,” she said. “As all other boas do.”
Like many snakes, Snoberger said they are active in the evening and morning.
The snake also gives live birth, which means that the eggs inside the mother hatch and snakes slither out, versus other snake species where eggs are laid in the ground.
There are seven species of snakes in the state that give live birth, and Snoberger said that helps the snakes’ survival in areas such as Wyoming where there is a short season before the cold-blooded creatures need to head for a den before winter arrives.
‘You’re All Right’
One Wyoming snake species, the western milk snake, can be found in the western part of the state.
It is sometimes mistaken as the venomous coral snake, which lives in several southern states. Like the coral snake, the western milk snake has red, yellow, and black stripes, but in a different order.
“The saying is, ‘Red on black, you’re all right Jack,’” Snoberger said. “Red on yellow, you’re a dead fellow.”
Since the coral snake is nowhere near Wyoming, Snoberger said residents don’t have to worry if they spot the colorful creature — which is rarely done.
The western milk snake, which grows to 2 feet long, also enjoys eating other snakes, she said.
Other more rarely seen snake varieties include the tiny smooth greensnake that can be found in the mountains of central and southern Wyoming as well as the Black Hills in northeastern Wyoming. The smooth greensnake is the one that turns blue when it dies.
And then there is the desert striped whip snake found in the Flaming Gorge area as well as the red-bellied snake found in the Black Hills.
As labeled, the red-bellied snake is small and “has a bright red belly.”
"It’s a very rare snake,” Snoberger said, adding that another rare reptile is the tiny plains black-headed snake found in portions of southeastern and south-central Wyoming.
Snoberger pointed out Matt Rasmussen, a Douglas resident and member of the Wyoming Herpetological Society who attended the lecture, who has found nine of them.
Rasmussen said the total of identified plains black-headed snakes in the state so far is 14. He told Cowboy State Daily after the lecture that he believes most snakes labeled “rare” in the state are only designated that way because they are not seen.
“I don’t know that they are necessarily rare, it’s just that they are rarely detected. They spend most of their life underneath rocks,” he said. “I like to wander and look for these animals which entails looking underneath a lot of rocks at a very specific time of year when there is good temperature and a little moisture.”
Herpetologist Charlotte Snoberger said the right way to handle venomous snakes is with a tube. (Courtesy Charlotte Snoberger) 
The western hognose snake is a great actor how vomits and poops on himself and then rolls over and plays dead when scared. (Courtesy Charlotte Snoberger) 
The smooth greensnake loves the grass in upper elevations. When it dies, it turns blue. (Courtesy Charlotte Snoberger) 
The northern rubber boa looks like a rubber snake, with a blunt head and tail. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The plains black-headed snake is thought to be rare in the state. But one snake aficionado believes that is just because they are rarely seen. He has seen nine of the 14 identified in the state. (Courtesy Charlotte Snoberger)
Common Snakes
More common snakes include four sub-species of garter snakes including the wandering garter snake, plains garter snake, red-sided garter snake, and valley garter snake.
The wandering garter snake can be found nearly everywhere in the state and, like the other garter snakes, features keeled scales that make it feel rougher to the touch.
It is identified by its dull yellowish or gray stripe and black checkers over a middle stripe.
Snoberger showed her audience how to count scale rows on the creatures to identify the different garter snakes. The other garter snakes have more specific ranges with the plains and red-sided garter snakes in the north and east of the state, and the valley garter snakes in the extreme western part of Wyoming.
All the garter snakes have their babies through live birth.
While working for Game and Fish, she said they came across a “hibernacula” or snake den for the valley garter snakes, and she showed a photo of herself holding up a half-dozen or more of the creatures.
Snoberger said species such as the valley and red-sided garter snakes tend to den up in large numbers. It is also true of other species as well.
The snakes look for an area that tends to be warmer such as underneath a south-facing big rock or a hole that goes very deep.
“They can den up with other species,” she said. “I have found prairie rattlesnakes, bullsnakes, racers and garter snakes denning up together.”
In addition to the garter snakes, Snoberger said bullsnakes, a large-bodied serpent that is yellow with blotches and keeled scales, are commonly found across the state. When threatened, it can puff up and hiss as well as move its tail. But it doesn’t have rattles.
Tree Climber
Bullsnakes often climb trees to steal bird eggs and are known to eat rodents. A subspecies with the bullsnake is the Great Basin gopher snake, which lives in the Great Basin area of southwest Wyoming, especially around Flaming Gorge.
Eastern yellow-bellied racer snakes are also common much of the central, northern and eastern parts of the state and can be bluish green and move extremely fast.
“This is by far the most aggressive snake in the state. They will almost always bite you if you were to pick one of these up,” she said. “I was bitten by one last week and it didn’t even break the skin.”
The acting award for snakes in the state goes to the western hognose snake. The snakes which have an upturned snout, use their snout to burrow into the ground. The snake is brown on the back with three-to-four rows of dark spots. Its belly has dark blue-black or black and yellow blotched markings.
They are often confused for rattlesnakes and then killed because people think they are rattlesnakes, she said. However, if one can see the face and the upturned nose “there is no confusing that thing.”
“The cool thing about hognose snakes is if you threaten them or scare them, they will pretend like they are dead,” she said. “They will vomit all over themselves, poop all over themselves, writhe, and then stick their tongues out and lay on their backs with their bellies and stop moving.”
Snoberger said those who watch long enough will see the snake roll back over and slither away.
As for the state’s two pit vipers, Snoberger said the prairie rattlesnake is found in much of the state while the shorter midget faded rattlesnake is found only in the Flaming Gorge Area.
Rattlers
Prairie rattlesnakes, which can be four feet or longer, tend to be brown and can have a slightly green color with rectangular slightly rounded spots on their back and pits under their eyes for detecting heat.
They rattle with their tails and are very venomous.
While the midget faded rattlesnake is shorter, getting to 2 feet long, another way of detecting the difference between the vipers is the width of the white line underneath their eyes.
The midget faded rattlesnake has a white line under its eye thicker than in on a prairie rattlesnake.
While at Fish and Game, Snoberger said she handled the rattlesnakes using a tube in which the snake’s crawls in headfirst.
The snake ends up halfway into the tube before holding it in place for inspection.
A participant at the lecture asked Snoberger how to identify where the rattlesnakes den up for the winter. Snoberger said shed skins are a sign and big rocky areas that face the south or southwest represent prime real estate for their dens.
September is the key month for snakes to make their migration to den areas.
“It’s a good idea before you build a house on a rocky outcrop to pay attention in the spring or the fall,” Snoberger said. Snakes typically return to the same den year after year.
The herpetologist also warned that people don’t need to be bitten by a rattler to be affected by its venom. If the snake is dead, but bit into another animal and venom remained on its head, anyone touching the head and having an open sore could be subject to the venom.
Snoberger also set the record straight about “poisonous” and “venomous” when referring to the snakes.
“Poisonous means something that you eat. Venom is something that is injected,” she said. “I don’t know what would happen if you ate snake venom, but I wouldn’t encourage you to do that.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
