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General Description: A long, thin, red snake without distinct dorsal marks; head and neck often with black marks.
Taxonomy: Colubrid Snakes Family (Colubridae). Formerly Masticophis flagellum.
Technical Description: Body long and thin, to 8.5 ft. Eyes large. Scales smooth. Dorsal color usually reddish or pink, grading to tan towards the tail. Head darker; neck black or with black bars. Anal scale divided. No dorsal marks. Scale pattern resembles a braided whip, hence the name. Wedged lower preocular. Scales in 17 rows at midbody. |
Note the red body with a black head and neck |
Diet: Eats lizards, small mammals, birds, bird eggs, and insects. Sometimes bobs head like a lizard to attract lizards into the strike zone.
Habitat: Creosote-Bursage Flats, Mojave Desert Scrub, Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands, farm fields, and grasslands with scattered brush and rocky areas to about 8,000 ft. Prefers open areas.
Range: Southern California, southern Nevada, southern Arizona, east; south into Mexico. This subspecies occurs in southern California, southern Nevada, southern Arizona. |
Coachwhips are big-eyed visual predators |
Breeding: Clutch of 4 to 20 eggs laid during summer.
Similar Species: There are no other long, thin, red snakes without dorsal marks in southern Nevada.
Comments: Diurnal. Very fast. |