# Brown snake (*Storeria dekayi*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-snake  
Data as of: 2026-11-14

The brown snake (Storeria dekayi) is a species in the family Colubridae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh about 45 g and live up to 7 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Canada.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 45 g |
| Length | up to 52.7 cm |
| Lifespan | 7 years |
| Diet | Carnivore |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | forest |
| Young per litter or clutch | 11.8 – 13 |
| Age at maturity | 2 years – 3 years |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1 |
| Reproduction | Live birth |
| Active | By day (diurnal) |
| Lifestyle | Terrestrial |
| Conservation status | Not recorded |
| Countries on record | 1 country |

## Recorded prey and predators

 Recorded predators: Blue jay (*Cyanocitta cristata*), Milk snake (*Lampropeltis triangulum*), Red-tailed hawk (*Buteo jamaicensis*), Red-shouldered hawk (*Buteo lineatus*), Black kingsnake (*Lampropeltis nigra*), American crow (*Corvus brachyrhynchos*). Each pair is recorded by at least two datasets compiled by Global Biotic Interactions (https://www.globalbioticinteractions.org/, CC0 1.0).

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Reptilia
- order: Squamata
- family: Colubridae
- genus: Storeria
- species: *Storeria dekayi* (Holbrook, 1839)

Synonyms: *Coluber dekayi*, *Storeria dekayi anomala*, *Storeria dekayi dekayi*, *Storeria dekayi limnetes*, *Storeria dekayi temporalineata*, *Storeria dekayi texana*, *Storeria dekayi tropica*, *Storeria dekayi var. anomala*, *Storeria dekayi wrightorum*, *Storeria tropica*, *Storeria tropica limnetes*, *Tropidonotus dekayi*

## Countries on record

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

Canada

## Common questions

### How big is the brown snake?

An adult brown snake weighs 45 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

### Where does the brown snake live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the brown snake for 1 country: Canada. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

### How long does the brown snake live?

The brown snake has a recorded lifespan of 7 years.

### What kind of animal is the brown snake?

The brown snake (Storeria dekayi) belongs to the family Colubridae in the order Squamata.

### What eats the brown snake?

Animals recorded preying on the brown snake include blue jay, milk snake, red-tailed hawk and red-shouldered hawk. The records are compiled by Global Biotic Interactions from published studies; each pair is reported by at least two datasets.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI): interpreted data products](https://www.globalbioticinteractions.org/), CC0 1.0, 0.11. Poelen, J.H., Simons, J.D. & Mungall, C.J. (2014) Global Biotic Interactions: an open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics 24: 148–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.08.005. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22691479, with each record's original reference.
- [Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS)](https://griis.org/), CC BY 4.0, 2026-11-13. Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group.
- [ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4), CC BY 4.0, v1-2. Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4
- [SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b), CC0 1.0, 1.0-dryad-v5. Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b

Cite as: Brown snake (Storeria dekayi). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-snake