Texas ratsnake
Pantherophis obsoletus (Say, 1823)
Status not recordedsnakes
The texas ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus) is a species in the family Colubridae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh about 6.56 kg and live up to 20 years.
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Quick facts about the texas ratsnake
- Weight
- 6.56 kg
- Length
- up to 2.57 m
- Lifespan
- 20 years
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 33.9 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forest
- Egg incubation
- 73.5 days
- Young per litter or clutch
- 14 – 15
- Age at maturity
- 4 years
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.33
- Reproduction
- Eggs
- Active
- By day (diurnal)
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrial
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the texas ratsnake live?
Not recorded
Is the texas ratsnake endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the texas ratsnake classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderSquamata
- familyColubridae
- genusPantherophis
- SpeciesPantherophis obsoletus (Say, 1823)
Synonyms Coluber obsoletus, Coluber reticularis, Elaphe obsoleta, Elaphe obsoleta lindheimerii, Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta, Scotophis confinis, Scotophis laetus, Scotophis lindheimerii
Other names and names in other languages (26)
- Black rat snakeEnglish
- Eastern rat snakeEnglish
- Everglades ratsnake (rossalleni)English
- Pilot black snakeEnglish
- Pilot black snake (obsoleta)English
- Texas rat snake (lindheimeri)English
- Western rat snakeEnglish
- Yellow rat snake (quadrivittata)English
- أفعى الجُرذان الغربيَّةArabic
- ᎦᎴᎩCherokee
- užovka černáCzech
- Vestamerikansk RottesnogDanish
- ErdnatterGerman
- Serpent ratier noirFrench
- zwarte rattenslangDutch
- Cobra-rateira-TexanaPortuguese
- Серый лазающий полозRussian
- Полоз щурячийUkrainian
- 德州鼠蛇Chinese
- užovka černá čtyřpruháCzech
- BergnatterGerman
- PilotnatterGerman
- Schwarze ErdnatterGerman
- Texas-KükennatterGerman
- Serpent ratier de l'ouestFrench
- Cobra-rateira-orientalPortuguese
Relatives of the texas ratsnake
Other species in the same genus Pantherophis.

Corn snake
Pantherophis guttatus
Baird's rat snake
Pantherophis bairdi
Great plains rat snake
Pantherophis emoryi
Gray ratsnake
Pantherophis alleghaniensis
Slowinski's Cornsnake
Pantherophis slowinskii
Pine Foxsnake
Pantherophis vulpinus
CompareTexas ratsnake vs Corn snakeTexas ratsnake vs Baird's rat snakeTexas ratsnake vs Great plains rat snakeTexas ratsnake vs Gray ratsnake
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the texas ratsnake?
An adult texas ratsnake weighs 6.56 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
How long does the texas ratsnake live?
The texas ratsnake has a recorded lifespan of 20 years.
What kind of animal is the texas ratsnake?
The texas ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus) belongs to the family Colubridae in the order Squamata.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · 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 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · 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 - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · 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 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · 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 - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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CreatureData. (2026). Texas ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/texas-ratsnake
“Texas ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/texas-ratsnake.
@misc{texas_ratsnake_2026,
title = {Texas ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/texas-ratsnake},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}