‹ Compare two snakes
Prairie Rattlesnake vs Gophersnake
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Scott Shupe, no rights reserved
Prairie Rattlesnake
Crotalus viridis
VenomousAbby Benson, no rights reserved
Gophersnake
Pituophis catenifer
Non-venomousThe quick way to tell
Look at the tail. The rattlesnake has a rattle. The gophersnake's tail tapers to a point, even when it shakes it, and its head is narrow with round pupils.
Tail ★ This settles it
Thinner than the body; tail rings dull, not bold black and white, ahead of the rattle.
Tapers evenly; no rattle - but it shakes the tip hard in leaves.
Head
Broad triangular head, clearly wider than the neck, with two pale diagonal stripes on the cheek.
Narrow head with a pointed snout and a dark line through the eye; it can flatten it to look triangular.
Pattern
Pale-edged blotches tightening into bands near the tail; colour matches local soil.
Dark blotches on yellow to cream, turning into clean crossbands near the tail.
Eyes
Vertical slit pupil; heat-sensing pit between eye and nostril.
Round pupil, small dark eye; no heat-sensing pit.
Pits
A deep heat-sensing pit on each side of the face, between the eye and the nostril.
None. There is no pit between the eye and the nostril.
What it does
Coils and rattles loudly; holds ground rather than fleeing.
Hisses very loudly, flattens its head and strikes with its mouth closed - all bluff.
Where it lives
Great Plains from southern Canada through Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, western Oklahoma and west Texas, west into eastern Idaho, eastern Utah, New Mexico and northeastern Arizona.
Western and central US: Pacific coast east to Indiana and Wisconsin, south through Texas, into Canada and Mexico.