Eastern Fox Snake

Elaphe vulpina gloydi

What They Look Like

The Eastern Fox Snake is a robust, yellowish to light brown snake with a row of large black or dark brown splotches running down its back and alternating smaller splotches that run down its sides.  Its head is light brown to a coppery, reddish brown with a dark band between the eyes.  As an adult they grow to be three to five and a half feet long.

  

Where They Live

In Michigan Eastern Fox Snakes can be found along Lake Huron from Saginaw Bay down to Lake St. Clair and along the Detroit River.  They live in shoreline marshes and vegetated dunes and beaches.  Sometimes they will wander into nearby farm fields, pastures, and woodlots. 

What They Eat

This snake eats small mammals, particularly meadow voles and deer mice.  They will also eat bird eggs and nestlings and they kill by constriction.  Eastern Fox Snakes prefer to forage and bask on raised dikes, muskrat houses, and road embankments.

  

Things to Know

This species of snake is a great swimmer and it can climb trees.  It is listed as State Threatened in Michigan and is now considered uncommon or rare in many areas where it was once abundant.  For defense against predators the Eastern Fox Snake looks and acts like a venomous rattlesnake and also when disturbed it can emit a musky odor which is similar to the odor of a fox, hence its name. 

  

Why We Have One

MUCC got its Eastern Fox Snake in November of 2001.  It was bred in captivity so it cannot be returned to the wild.