google made me fall in love with rat snakes.

[knox]

Here's a couple of Knoxville, TN Black Rats that I came across in the past several years.

The first one was last year on our local Disc Golf course. Jumpy, but no interest in biting me. I would guess about 2 years old. Washed out and brown, it wasn't that nice to look at. Bad phone pic - sorry.

The larger one was especially docile and quite stunning. I rescued it off a busy road while trying to cross. That was the largest snake I have ever come across in the wild, let alone caught. I think that was from 2007 maybe. VERY strong and impressive. My daughter wanted to keep it, but I convinced her it needed to live out it's days as it always had - wild and free.

Both released after pics were taken.

They might not be the best looking snakes out there, but the Black Rats are some of my favorites.

[CosmicOwl]

Originally Posted by knox

Here's a couple of Knoxville, TN Black Rats that I came across in the past several years.

The first one was last year on our local Disc Golf course. Jumpy, but no interest in biting me. I would guess about 2 years old. Washed out and brown, it wasn't that nice to look at. Bad phone pic - sorry.

The larger one was especially docile and quite stunning. I rescued it off a busy road while trying to cross. That was the largest snake I have ever come across in the wild, let alone caught. I think that was from 2007 maybe. VERY strong and impressive. My daughter wanted to keep it, but I convinced her it needed to live out it's days as it always had - wild and free.

Both released after pics were taken.

They might not be the best looking snakes out there, but the Black Rats are some of my favorites.

That second black rat snake is gorgeous. Some of them seem to have really muddy coloring, but the "salt n' pepper" thing that snake has going on is really beautiful. If I found such a stunning and docile snake I'd have a very hard time letting it go.

I don't know why, but I have a thing for snakes with grey/black/brown coloring. I'm going to have to some fun watching my white oak grey rat snake's color changing and fading as he gets older. Right now, he's very high contrast and clean looking, but I can already see his saddles breaking up. I'm looking forward to when he's a 6 foot long chestnut and silver beast.