The Western Hognose Snake is light brown with dark brown or gray blotches. The underside often has a black and white checkered pattern, sometimes with some orange. They are stocky snakes with an upturned snout which they use for digging in the soil. Heterodon nasicus is a harmless colubrid species found in North America and northern Mexico. Three subspecies are currently recognized, including the typical form described here.
Ten Facts about Western Hognose Snake
- Common names: western hog-nosed snake, plains hognose snake.
- A full grown 24-inch female is as bulky as a five-foot corn snake and can grow from 15 to 33 inches in length.
- Because the snake cannot see while shedding, it becomes paranoid and more aggressive.
- The defensive bite response is usually due to the temporary blindness experienced while shedding.
- Common names are Blowing adder, blowing viper, blow snake, bluffer, common western hog-nosed viper.
- Found from southeastern Alberta and southwestern Manitoba in Canada, south to southeastern Arizona and Texas in the United States and into northern Mexico. Disjunct populations in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas.
- habitats, including shortgrass prairies, grasslands, and rocky, semi-arid regions.
- They feed on amphibians, lizards, and rodents.
- They breed in the spring, laying 4 to 23 eggs in the mid summer, which take approximately 60 days to hatch.
- Hatchlings are 15-19 cm in length and reach sexual maturity after two years.
