Gentle Giants: Gopher Snakes Are Safe And Fun To Watch
Durango Herald, May 8, 2005
Leigh Gillette

The Great Basin gopher snake, also known as the bullsnake, is a friend to agriculture, as it primarily eats gophers and other rodents.

During a recent elementary school outing at the Durango Nature Center, I heard shrieks of “Snake! Snake!” from a group of nearby students. I could tell from the tone in the kids’ voices that no one had accidentally tripped over a rattlesnake, but the thrill in those cries indicated something beyond a typical garter snake sighting. Sure enough, the kids had spotted one of the Nature Center’s most charismatic denizens, Pituophis catenifer deserticola, the Great Basin Gopher Snake, also known locally as a bullsnake.

Gopher snakes are large, heavy-bodied snakes measuring 36” to 100” in length, colored soft yellow with large brown-black blotches running from head to tail- a color scheme reminiscent of ripe bananas. When alarmed, the gopher snake will imitate the (smaller and drabber) rattlesnake by coiling, rattling its tail in dry vegetation, flaring its narrow head into a triangular shape, and striking. Typically, gopher snakes tend to exhibit behavior that is more docile. The Nature Center gopher snakes calmly slide past dozens of chattering children at a time, hiding in a nearby gopher hole when the attention becomes intolerable.

Gopher snakes, true to their name, feed primarily upon gophers and other rodents (making them excellent agricultural allies during this wet spring of high rodent population). These snakes are non-venemous constrictors that suffocate their prey. Prey caught above ground is wrapped in the snake’s coils; prey caught in underground burrows is pressed against the burrow wall. Gopher snakes will also hunt lizards, and even raid birds nests, for these snakes are quite agile, able to climb trees as well as dig into gopher mounds. To dispel a myth however, gopher snakes do not prey upon rattlesnakes. The two snakes compete for the same food sources, and therefore a healthy gopher snake population may prevent rattlesnakes from migrating into an area.

Gopher snakes mate in April-May, as witnessed by a group of preschoolers and their moms visiting the Nature Center a few years ago. One mommy had nearly trodden upon a gopher snake (admirably stifling her reflexive scream), and we had moved all of the kids to a better vantage point to enjoy the snake without frightening it away. Moments later, another gopher snake appeared, and the two began coiling around each other, entwined in an impressive courtship display. As the snakes bumped snouts one little girl shouted “They’re kissing!”. Mercifully, I was spared the need to explain any further, and just confirmed that yes, that’s just what Mr. and Mrs. Snake were doing. Regarding the rest of the story: after mating, Mrs. Gopher Snake lays an average of 12 eggs, which incubate (unsupported by a parent) roughly 75 days. The gray, foot-long hatchlings emerge in August-September. Come late September, the snakes head for “hibernacula,” communal hibernation dens below the frost line. The snakes emerge in April, and the cycle begins again.