‹ Compare two snakes
Prairie Rattlesnake vs Prairie Kingsnake
Tap a part to see it on both. Tap it again to turn it off.
Scott Shupe, no rights reserved
Prairie Rattlesnake
Crotalus viridis
VenomousAlex, no rights reserved
Prairie Kingsnake
Lampropeltis calligaster
Non-venomousThe quick way to tell
Look at the tail tip. The Prairie Kingsnake may buzz its tail in dry leaves, but the tail is plain and pointed. A Prairie Rattlesnake has a rattle.
Tail ★ This settles it
Thinner than the body; tail rings dull, not bold black and white, ahead of the rattle.
Plain, pointed tail with no rattle; it may vibrate it when alarmed.
Head
Broad triangular head, clearly wider than the neck, with two pale diagonal stripes on the cheek.
Head barely wider than the neck, often with an arrowhead-shaped mark on top.
Pattern
Pale-edged blotches tightening into bands near the tail; colour matches local soil.
Many small, dark-edged brown or reddish blotches down the back, with smaller alternating spots on the sides; may fade with age.
Eyes
Vertical slit pupil; heat-sensing pit between eye and nostril.
Round pupils.
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.
Very secretive; often vibrates its tail and may bite or musk when grabbed.
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.
Central US from southern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska and Kansas south to eastern Texas and Louisiana, east through Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and western Tennessee; just reaches northern Mississippi and far northern Alabama.