Hobbies And Interests

Difference Between Gopher Snakes & Bull Snakes

If you are a Midwestern farmer, you may have "bulls" slithering through your yard, but gophers are furry pests. On the contrary, if you are a California shareholder, you may have seen a "gopher," sunning itself on a rock, but a bull is a good market. Often, different people have different names for the same thing. Such is the case with gopher snakes and bull snakes. Both names refer to the same animal, Pituophis catenifer. However, these snakes do have slight regional differences that cause scientists to classify them as separate subspecies.
  1. Physical Appearance

    • Bull snakes always have a pronounced rostral, which is the scale on the front of the face, just above the mouth. It forms a rounded point and is raised above the surrounding scales. Most gopher snakes have a blunter rostral and none have a significantly raised scale as the bull snake does. The bull snake also has a dark line that often runs from its eye to the corner of its jaw, which many gopher snakes lack. Its pattern and color varies greatly along the length of its body, a trait which is shared by the Great Basin gopher snake, but which is absent from many other subspecies. It also has a characteristically dark nape, which is absent from some gopher snakes.

    Habitat

    • The bull snake's range extends from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan to northern Mexico and from Indiana to Montana. They inhabit grasslands, forests, farmlands and semi-deserts, similar to the gopher snake. Unlike the bull snake, however, the gopher snakes are also desert-dwellers. They inhabit the western portion of the United States and Canada, the majority of northern Mexico, and several islands off of Mexico and California.

    Cause of Differences

    • The differences between the bull snake and the gopher snakes are geographically induced. The Rocky Mountains form a partial barrier, which separates the two groups and prevents them from interbreeding with each other as often as they interbreed amongst themselves. Over time, this caused each group to develop unique features. Nevertheless, they are still capable of interbreeding where their ranges overlap, a key characteristic that scientists use to label them as variations of a single species instead of different snakes.

    Distribution and Identification

    • Many varieties of gopher snake are highly localized, which often simplifies the identification process. For example, both the bull snake and the Santa Cruz Island gopher snake have a dark nape; but the latter is confined to the Santa Cruz Islands off of the California coast. If you find a snake that looks like it in Oklahoma, you can be certain that you have a bull snake. Likewise, the Sonoran gopher snake, which has a pointed rostral similar to the bull snake's, only lives in the Sonoran Desert region. Therefore, if you find a snake like this in a forest, you know that it is a bull snake. This process of elimination can help you tell the difference between a bull snake and a gopher snake, even when their characteristics are similar.


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