Blue Racer range extends from Canada including areas of Guatemala, Pelee Island to the north and Mexico and also, Belize from the southwest.
This species can also be located across the US from the southern regions of the Rocky Mountains at the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington, western South Dakota, and Iowa.
The blue racer snake is located in either open or semi-open habitats, such as hedgerows, meadows, savannas or weedy pond borders and marshes and each of these habitats is essential for fulfilling their environmental requirements.
These snakes are extremely intolerant to individual action because of this reason that they prefer to reside in regions with fewer individual habitations.
Normally, they’re one of the very first snake species to vanish from growing suburban places. Their habitat could occupy an area since the species isn’t territorial by nature, but a number of them are able to reside in precisely exactly the place.
How fast is a blue racer snake?
As their name implies, the blue racer is a really speedy snake that may move at rates of nearly 7 Km roughly 4.3 mph, so far by the lightning rate of their highly poisonous black mamba.
This rate helps them capture prey or avoid being clubbed. The species life span in the ranges.
They’re busy during the day and want to spend the majority of their time around the floor, but are also known to forage both in the earth and trees. The racers are known to hibernate during the winter season in massive groups.
Do blue racers chase you?
When searching they maintain their heads up and move really quickly through brushes with their keen vision. The racer might grow into bushes or trees if endangered and will attempt to escape in the bush. They are quite capable of inflicting a painful bite, Although they have been non-venomous.
We typically catch just a glimpse of them as they vanish quickly throughout the plant. When threatened they vibrate their tails to create noise because of this are frequently mistaken for rattlesnakes and also that functions as a warning.
Their length ranges between 35 to 60 inches (90 to 152 cm) plus it is among the biggest snakes located in Ontario.
The underbelly color is black, the buttocks change from a vibrant blue (hence their common name) into a dull grey and they have bright brown to grey dorsum.
They have smooth scales, big eyes, along with a brown-orange snout. Unlike mature blue racers, hatchlings and juvenile snakes exhibit dorsal blotches which will gradually fade away with their 3rd year.
A number of those big birds of prey such as the red-tailed hawk, northern harrier, and great horned owl are one of its own predators but they’re also preyed by coyotes, foxes, raccoons, dogs, and feral house cats or wild cats.
Blue Racer Diet
The blue racers eat crickets and other insects like worms or spiders, mature snakes feed chiefly on small rodents, birds, frogs and other snakes like the ringneck snake.
The blue racer is an active forager and regardless of its own scientific name, it is not actually a constrictor.
Blue Racer Reproduction
The blue racer breeding period happens from the spring, from April ongoing during May. The female will lay anywhere from 5 up to 28 eggs around 2.5 cm into 3.9 cm long with a leathery shell, in late June. The hatchlings might need to use their own”egg ” to reduce out their way.
The eggs hatch in summer months by mid-August to late September, along with the youthful step about 8 to 11 inches (20 to 30 cm) in length. The most typically used nesting habitats are decaying logs however grim racers also deposit their eggs beneath stones, sand, tree branches, foliage litters, decaying organic matter or underground within unoccupied animal burrows.
Occasionally blue racers nest communally, also it is apparently a relatively frequent phenomenon, they nest with different species specifically the southern fox snake. These snakes achieve sexual maturity.
Blue Racer Conservation
Individual persecution and street mortality, in addition to human evolution, are threatening this snake species that are vulnerable. The blue racer is known as”Endangered” from the COSEWIC, being listed as endangered in Canada and recorded as special concern species at the state of Wisconsin from the united states.
The previous record of this blue racer on southern Canada was in Ontario in 1983, on Pelee Island, the species will be confined to the southern areas of the island.
The species was around Ontario’s Endangered Species List as 1971, so the habitat deemed crucial to this species survival is shielded from destruction or major change. The racer is not yet been assessed by the IUCN due to its list.
