Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi

BLACK PINE SNAKE

Photo by Patrick H. Briggs

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult

Digital Image by Patrick Houston Briggs

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult

Digital Image by Patrick Houston Briggs

Jerry Hartley with a Black Pine Snake and Pat Briggs with a Kankakee County Bull Snake

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE hatching

Digital Image by Patrick Houston Briggs

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE neonate individual born black-bellied

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

BLACK PINE SNAKE By Patrick Houston Briggs

BLACK PINE SNAKE (Blanchard, 1924)

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi 

By Patrick Briggs

In accordance with an agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity and Wildearth Guardians, organizations that have quickened the pace of decisions regarding species protection, along with 757 other species, the Black Pine Snake Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi will be protected as a threatened species (it is actually a subspecies) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) effective on November 5, 2015 which is 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register on October 6, 2015. A creature designated as threatened means that it is at risk of becoming endangered within the foreseeable future. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposed rule to list the black pine snake as threatened on October 7, 2014. Many years earlier, the black pine snake had been added to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service's list of candidates for federal protection in 1999. Additionally, there will be exemptions permitted under Section 4(d) of the ESA allowing specific management activities to continue and by excluding some standard regulatory actions in order to benefit the subspecies' recovery. Some of these include making sure that working land continues with its regular activities, reductions to some regulatory obstacles, and advising landowners ahead of time what is expected from them. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife has proposed more than 330,000 acres of critical habitat for the Black pine snake that will also benefit many other creatures and organisms within that ecosystem. Those decisions regarding critical habitat actions will be delayed until 2016. The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service stated: "This snake’s decline is primarily attributed to the loss and degradation of the longleaf pine ecosystem because of habitat fragmentation, fire suppression, conversion of natural pine forests to densely stocked pine plantations, and agricultural and urban development. Other threats to the snake’s survival include road mortality and killing by humans."

The United Association of Reptile Keepers (USARK) agrees that the wild black pine snake must have protection, but it also recognizes the importance and of keeping captive populations and maintaining the rights of so many private collectors and zoological organizations who have contributed much of what is known about this pine snake especially those who breed them regularly, and pass on significant information about them. USARK have simply fought for exclusion from regulatory burdens using an additional 4(d) rule of the ESA.

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

 Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult 0.1 laying eggs

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

RANGE MAP for Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult LAYING EGGS

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

History:  The Black pine snake Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi is named after Dr. Henry Peter Loeding (a naturalist and entomologist around 1945). In a report in the Copeia journal No. 81, April 15, 1920, beginning on page 30, Frank N. Blanchard a biologist from the University of Michigan described a female form of Pituophis (1,800 millimeters total length)that was large and black both above and below, except for some rusty highlights on the face and under the tail. It had been found dead in southern Alabama on a road by a friend and associate, Dr. Loeding. Subsequently, it was sent to Blanchard for examination. This was the first example of a black form of Pituophis to ever be reported anywhere and also the first specimen of the genus to be reported from Alabama. It is currently preserved as 62340 at the U.S. National Museum. Loeding found it about 14 miles southwest of Mobile, Alabama near Hall's Mill Creek. Later, another female was found by E. D. King Jr. 12 miles further southwest than the first black Pituophis at Grand Bay. That specimen was found alive. These two snakes were the first specimens used to describe this form. Many others have subsequently been found, and live individuals collected, successfully bred in private collections, researched, and studied. They have also been tracked through radio-telemetry for scientific studies. Most recently, May 24, 2015, Bradley Wagstaff observed and photographed a DEAD ON ROAD Black pine snake near Perkinston , Alabama of Stone County.(See online: Naturalista Black Pine Snake). Although the Black pine snake still is rarely seen in the wild due to its fossorial (underground) habits, it now is well known to science and the animal trade. It also is prized and consistently bred in captivity.

Classification: All pine snakes are members of the Class Reptilia, Order Squamata, Suborder Serpentes, and the Family Colubridae. The Black pine snake Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi is one of 3 subspecies of the species Pituophis melanoleucus.The other two include the nominate form called the Northern pine snake Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus, and the Florida or Southern pine snake Pituophis melanoleucus mugitus. Another pine snake also exists in Louisiana and Texas relegated not too long ago as a separate species. It is the Louisiana pine snake Pituophis ruthveni, for sometime, considered by many authorities to be the rarest snake in the U.S. The Black pine snake is an oviparous (egg-laying) non-venomous constrictor. It is distinguished from other pine snakes by simply being dark brown or black on the upper and sometimes, lower surfaces of their bodies. The individuals vary in color as adults, some having reddish-brown snouts and others with white on the throat and ventral surface. Most, but not all, have blotching or partial rings barely visible toward rear of the body and tail. Young black pine snakes hatch with blotches and spots typical of other pine snakes, but with each outer skin slough, it becomes darker and the markings fade out. The head of the black pine snake is disproportionately small and the snout is fairly pointed. The scale on the snout tip is the rostral that divides the internasals for about 2/3rds their width and is raised or "cornified" much higher than adjacent scales. This is a fossorial adaptation for burrowing and for pushing sand, gravel, and soil. Although Black pine snakes have keeled scales on the upper scale rows, the lower 5 rows on each side are smooth.

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult upper head study

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult left side closeup head

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

Habits: The Black pine snake is a powerful non-venomous snake that kills its prey by constriction. Black pine snakes are diurnal ophidians (snakes) which means that they are usually active during the daytime. They prey on a variety of creatures including small rodents such as very young rabbits, gophers, cotton rats, and cotton mice. They also feed on young birds and their eggs. The small mammals such as rabbits, rats, and mice are grasped in the mouth and then constricted before being eaten. Gophers and other rodents found underground are simply pressed against the sides of the burrow or tunnel. Young birds and hairless young rodents are usually and effortlessly eaten alive.

Black Pine Snakes begin mating from about the end of February and March. They find mates through scent tracking. Their forked tongues are extracted and retracted constantly to bring in molecular scent particles into a paired olfactory mechanism inside the mouth palate that merges with the nasal region. The smell-taste mechanism allows them to identify food, mates, and other information. The males using their mouths will grasp the females by the head or body to gain leverage and line up the tails for mating. One to two months later, beginning around April throughout August, they will deposit eggs in nests that females have modified from tunnels or burrows of other animals such as armadillos, rabbits and other smaller rodents, or tortoises. They will also deposit their eggs under large boulders, woodpiles or in thick piles of leaf litter, sandy soil debris, or any natural substrate that will hold humidity and maintain ideal temperatures from about 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit. These snakes seem to have smaller clutches of somewhat larger eggs (1-6) than other forms of pine snakes except, the Louisiana pine snake that has enormous eggs. Within 7-9 weeks, young Black Pine snakes hatch by cutting slits in the leathery eggs utilizing a temporary egg tooth on the snout.  The Black Pine Snakes hatch measuring about 18-22 inches (45-56 cm). The adults normally attain lengths from 48-64 inches (122-163 cm), but the record has been reported to be 89 inches (226 cm) for a wild collected specimen. I have kept and bred a captive bred male approaching 80 inches with his female partner not too far behind in length.

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE neonate individual born light bellied

With each shed the light areas darken, especially the belly many times, becoming black.

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

Habitat and Range: Black pine snakes frequent open longleaf pine forests with loose sandy soil for burrowing. It is indigenous from southern Alabama and Mississippi to the coastal plain and barely in extreme southeastern Louisiana, where it is considered extirpated by some authorities. Even so, over the past decade, I have seen images of the Black pine snakes and reports of this form from Washington Parish, which is the Louisiana locality. Some of these are still bred regularly and continue in collections for captive breeding. An intermediate form also exists between the Florida subspecies, P. m.mugitus and P. m. lodingi  in Baldwin and Escambia Counties in Alabama and in Escambia County , Florida (Conant 1956, pp.10-11). These relic intergrades are now separated from populations of the black pine snakes by the broad Tensas-Mobile River Delta and the Alabama River so there should be no cross breeding of the two snakes across the delta at this time (Duran 1998a, p. 13; Hart 2002, p. 23). Digital images known as Escambia Black pine snakes have also been taken of the intergrades in the Florida panhandle (See online: J. Keenan- HGHjim flickr). In Mississippi, 14 counties report having a history of black pine snakes, but they seem to have been extirpated in 2 of those counties; Lauderdale and Walthall. The historical 14 include:  1. Forrest, 2. George, 3. Greene, 4. Harrison, 5. Jackson, 6. Jones, 7. Lamar, 8. Lauderdale, 9. Marion, 10. Pearl River, 11. Perry, 12. Stone, 13. Walthall, 14. Wayne. In Alabama, only 3 counties west of the Mobile River Delta report having Black pine snakes. 1. Clarke, 2. Mobile, 3. Washington.  

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi BLACK PINE SNAKE adult

Photo by Patrick Houston Briggs

This snake is endangered in Mississippi and rare in other areas within its range. Natural fires have been a critical factor in maintaining the open areas of habitat bordering and within mature longleaf pine woodlands where the Black Pine Snake lives. This form needs both the thick forest habitat and large open areas that are clear of trees to survive. Wild fires in the past have always created these areas, but if these fires are put out by aggressive fire fighting methods, there will be no open areas, and the habitat will disappear. As reported earlier, on November 5, 2015, the Black Pine Snake will be protected as a threatened species (actually, it is a subspecies) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We can only hope that the changes due to this protection listing, such as managing and protecting specific lands, replacing  non-native pines and shrubs with native longleaf pines and foliage, allowing moderate fires to burn, and the many other measures will be successful for the Black Pine Snake and the many other indigenous plants and creatures within their range that had flourished in the past for centuries.

 In this beautiful habitat is one of my Black pine snakes, Brute who is over 79 inches and an enormous pack of muscle.

Digital Image by Pat Briggs October 23, 2015