Hello all,
I just found your forum and joined it hoping someone here can help me ID a snake. I *thought* I knew what it was, but in reading around, I found so much conflicting information, so now I really am not sure.
I have a little farm about 40 miles or so southeast of Dallas, Texas. I see a LOT of these snakes, usually in the process of eating (or trying to get to) some of my smaller animals. I do my best to put broody poultry, etc. in wooden boxes with fitted doors so snakes can't get to them, but that is not always possible. This snake got into my goat shed where a muscovy (large duck - about the size of a goose) was raising her babies. The ducklings were almost a month old, so they were NOT small. When I opened the door in the morning, the goats and ducks rushed out, and this fairly large (it's a little over 5 feet long) snake was going along one wall. It was very aggressive, I tried to remove it from the barn and it came after me, trying to bite me. Almost succeeded, because with the stall walls, the snake could move around a lot better in there than I could. It kept trying to bite (I rather expected it maybe to disgorge the ducklings, but it didn't, and managed to move quite well), and I did end up killing it.
I need to know what it is, because I see a lot of them. I thought it was a plain old rat snake, so I wasn't that worried about it -- just try to keep my animals in snake-proof housing. But the more I read, the more I wonder if I might not be wrong.
The countryside around here is trees, pastures, with creeks running through. I have an old barn on the property, a field of tall grass nearby, and lots of small wildlife around.
Attaching pics below, but I wanted to let you know in case it disturbs anyone here, the snake is dead in the pics.
Thanks if anyone can help ID.
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