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Black Pinesnake

Camp Shelby, Mississippi

Black Pinesnake adult male
Fig. 1(a) Adult Male Black Pinesnake
© Jim Lee / TNC

Black Pinesnake Hatchling
Fig. 1(b) Hatchling Female Black Pinesnake
© Jim Lee / TNC

Black pinesnake tails
    Fig. 2 Tail length and thickness of female (left) and male (right) Black Pinesnakes.
© Jim Lee / TNC

Habitat for Black Pinesnakes
Habitat for these snakes consists of sandy well-drained soils, and an open park-like longleaf pine forest, with dense herbacious groundcover.
© Jim Lee / TNC

The Black Pinesnake (Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi) (figure 1a) is a large, powerful constricting snake that hisses loudly, and vibrates its tail when first encountered. The head appears disproportionately small compared to the body. People throughout the Black Pinesnake’s range often confuse this species and the Black Racer (Coluber constrictor), commonly referred to by locals as the “black runner”. However, adult Black Pinesnakes are larger (6-7 feet), have thicker bodies, and have keeled scales (raised ridge running down the midline of each scale), compared to the “black runner” that only grows to 3-5 feet, has a slender body, and smooth scales. Male pinesnakes can be distinguished from female pinesnakes by their longer, and thicker tails (figure 2). Hatchling Black Pinesnakes have a blotchy pattern (figure 1b) that fades with age, although faint indications of blotches may persist even in older individuals (particularly on or near the tail).

Range, status and habitat
The Black Pinesnake has a range that extends from southwestern Alabama, through southern
Mississippi, and into southeastern Louisiana. In each of these states it is considered imperiled or critically imperiled and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service considers it a candidate for federal listing. Within Mississippi, the pinesnake is state endangered and its distribution is limited to the 14 southernmost counties, but it is thought to be most abundant within the boundaries of the DeSoto National Forest. Black Pinesnakes are endemic to the now highly fragmented, upland longleaf pine forests that once covered the southeastern states. Habitat for these snakes consists of sandy well-drained soils, and an open park-like longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forest, with a dense herbaceous groundcover. These snakes may also be found within stream or river corridors and in or near pitcher plant bogs. Adult Black Pinesnakes use rotted-out root systems as their daily retreat sites and for hibernation; however hatchling and juvenile snakes predominately use small mammal burrows as their daily retreat sites and for hibernation.

Food Items
Seven (21%) of the 34 Black Pinesnakes found in 2004 and 2005 on Camp Shelby contained food items. Two snakes contained the remnants of the hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus), and the remaining five snakes consumed: 6 baby swamp rabbits (Silvilagus aquaticus), 3 bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) eggs, 1 eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), 1 unknown mouse (Peromyscus sp.), and a baby eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), respectively. Based upon the rate of decomposition, and the fact that the eastern fox squirrel was covered in maggots, it was determined that the squirrel had died prior to being ingested by the Black Pinesnake. 

Homerange
The Black Pinesnake requires large tracts of undisturbed land to conduct its seasonal and daily activities such as eating, mating, thermoregulation and hibernation. This is called a “homerange”. The annual homerange (area used when conducting these activities) of adult Black Pinesnakes tracked on Camp Shelby in 2004 and 2005 ranged from 135 – 385 acres.

Camp Shelby
The Camp Shelby Training Site, located in Forrest, George, and Perry counties, MS, is believed to have the largest population of Black Pinesnakes throughout the animal’s range. This is probably an artifact of the limited amount of habitat fragmentation that has taken place on the installation compared to surrounding areas. Additionally when the Mississippi Army National Guard, and United States Forest Service created a ~2000 acre preserve for the Gopher Tortoise on Camp Shelby in the late 1980’s, the Black Pinesnake greatly benefited, and this area has yielded the highest number of pinesnake captures each year.

Questions regarding the ongoing Black Pinesnake project on Camp Shelby can be directed to Jim Lee.