Slender gray or grayish-tan snake with wide triangle-shaped rostral scale curved back over snout. Broad beige or yellow to brownish-orange back stripe bordered by dark side stripes. 9 upper lip scales, 1 or 2 sometimes reach eye. Scales smooth, in 17 rows. Anal plate divided. The Western Patch-nosed Snake may strike if cornered. Its bite is not venomous. Salvadora hexalepis or, the Western patch-nosed snake, is a colubrid snake found in southwestern U.S.A, and northern Mexico. The snake inhabits the arid deserts in its area.
Ten Facts about Western Patch-nosed Snake
- Length is 22-45" (56-114.3 cm).
- Presumed to mate April to June; lays 4-10 eggs in summer.
- Young hatch in 2-3 months. Hatchlings about 9" (23 cm) long.
- Barren creosote bush desert flats, sagebrush semidesert, chaparral, and mesquite-dominated washes into foothills and mesas; sea level to 7,000' (2,150 m).
- S. California, w. and s. Nevada, and extreme sw. Utah, south into Mexico; Big Bend region of Texas to se. Arizona, south into nw. Mexico.
- This fast-moving, agile species is active much of the day.
- This alert and fast moving diurnal snake hibernates during the cold months of late fall and winter.
- The Western Patch-nosed Snake actively forages for lizards, mice and other small mammals, reptile eggs, and birds.
- Mating takes place in spring and a clutch of up to 12 eggs is laid in late spring or summer.
- Hatchlings begin to emerge in July.
