Nonetheless, they will accept rodents and reptile eggs as food. When it comes to their own diet, the New Mexico Milk Snake seems to prefer small lizards and very small snakes, such as Black-headed Snakes (Tantilla spp.). The solution is to spend a lot of time hiding and be able to squeeze into the tiniest limestone crevices to escape their would-be predators. Obviously, King Snakes and Coachwhips will also eat them if given the chance. Their habitat gets exceptionally hot and dry during the summer, and they must compete with King Snakes and Coachwhips for food and habitat. These snakes live in a tough neck of the woods. New Mexico Milk Snake habitat and natural history The fact that they are also nocturnal, and so very small, undoubtedly adds to how uncommon it is to encounter them. It would seem New Mexico Milk Snakes do in fact occur in good numbers – they’re just incredibly shy and hard to find. These days, following several surveys of its population, we now know that this locality is in fact quite common. It is for this reason that for many years, zoologists and herpers alike believed that the New Mexico Milk Snake was rare, and potentially a threatened species.Īt one point, it even received legal protection, due to how rare it appeared to be. If an animal is hiding under a rock, that itself is surrounded by dry grass, it is essentially invisible. In this habitat it spends the day hiding and comes out to hunt at night.ĭuring the day, when it is hiding, it almost never encounters humans. It prefers dry, rocky grassland areas in southeast New Mexico and west Texas (Big Bend region). It may also be one of the least observed, and possibly even one of the least understood. In the wild, it is probably of of the least commonly encountered. It is a variety of the Western Milk Snake. Scientifically known as Lampropeltis gentilis, the New Mexico Milk Snake is the smallest locality of Milk Snake known. Other subspecies on the list have now been declared full species – you can read more about this in the study: Coalescent Species Delimitation in Milksnakes (Genus Lampropeltis ) and Impacts on Phylogenetic Comparative Analyses A nicely patterned New Mexico Milk Snake New Mexico Milk Snake Some of these subspecies are no longer recognised scientifically, but still often referred to by enthusiasts as “localities.” By locality, we mean a variety of a species that is not recognized as a true subspecies, but still differs in size or coloration to other members of its species. List of Milk Snake subspecies past and present: but there are other small subspecies that are common in captivity, however, which we will discuss. In fact, the largest New Mexico Milk Snake ever recorded was only 24 inches (60cm) long.Īs you’re about to find out, it isn’t easy to find a New Mexico Milk Snake in the wild, or as a pet. Most New Mexico Milk Snakes only reach 18 inches (45cm), and some only 16 (40cm). In fact, the New Mexico Milk Snake ( Lampropeltis gentilis) – the smallest variety of all – would be dwarfed by a Honduran Milk Snake. There are many Milk Snakes that rarely get more than 24 inches (60cm) long. If this is you, then the ever-variable Milk Snake complex has you covered. A lot of enthusiasts prefer the convenience of smaller, more manageable snakes. The thing is, not everyone has room for a snake over 4 feet long. I’ve seen captive Honduran Milk Snakes, for example, that were over 4 feet (1.2m) in length. The problem is, some Milk Snakes do not stay small. For Milk Snakes, this Batesian Mimicry means that they have bright red, yellow or white, and black markings.įor us reptile enthusiasts, this makes finding a wild Milk Snake – or getting a captive-bred one as a pet – particularly exciting. This habit of copying the bright aposematic colours of a venomous species is called Batesian Mimicry (named after the great naturalist H. Almost every single variety of Milk Snake is a brightly coloured Coral Snake mimic. What they have in common, however, is their bright colouration. Though technically very similar, the various varieties of Milk Snake ( Lampropeltis triangulum and close relatives) are highly disparate in size.
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