One of the rarest snakes in North America recently hatched at the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee. Soon, it will leave and try to survive in the wild.
“This snake and future hatchlings will be cared for over the next year before being released into the wild next spring to help repopulate their species,” the zoo said in a Facebook reel. It showed the Louisiana pinesnake meeting other reptiles, twisting around a gloved hand and more.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, this species of non-venomous constrictors (Pituophis ruthveni) is “considered to be one of the rarest snakes,” on the continent.
In the wild, they inhabit the longleaf pine savannas of west Louisiana and east Texas, though they are not often spotted since they spend most of their time underground.
That’s because the Louisiana pinesnake’s diet mainly consists of pocket gophers. To make sure they’re in a good position to feast on the creatures, they’re often in the gophers’ burrow system.
“Pocket gophers appear to be their primary food source although they will consume other small rodents, amphibians and eggs from ground nesting birds,” said the USDA. “Some individuals believe that the LA pine snake has experienced years of population decline.”
Per the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, people had actually mostly reduced the type of habitat where the snakes live by the 1930s, and it did not easily regenerate naturally. Climate change has also impacted its habitats. Since the remaining populations of the snake in the wild are small, they are vulnerable to things like extreme weather and disease.
Currently the snakes have been listed as threatened under the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Environmental Conservation System since 2018. Per the USDA, they have also been listed as a candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and government agencies are working with landowners in its habitat area to support recovery of the snake’s population.
“Conservation practices that maintain or establish open, herbaceous-dominated vegetative understory conditions would aid against the identified threat,” the USDA explained.
For more than a decade, the Memphis Zoo has also been partnering with the U.S. Forest Service (Catahoula District, La.) and other zoos in the region on Louisiana pinesnake conservation. Their program calls for the release of zoo-bred pine snakes onto restored habitat in Grant Parish, La., to create a new, self-sustaining population.
These snakes have small heads with pointed snouts, and a buff yellowish background coloring as well as 28 to 38 blotches in black, brown and russet. They can grow up to 5 feet long and have either unmarked bellies or bellies that are boldly patterned with black markings. If you run into one, it might make a huffing or hissing sound.
In captivity, the snakes can live for up to 30 years. Once they are 4 feet long (at 2 to 3 years old) they can reproduce.
Louisiana pinesnakes are also known for producing the largest eggs and hatchlings of any U.S. snake. At the Memphis Zoo, the first Louisiana pine snake hatchling of 2024 had 114 total eggs, “the largest amount of eggs in a season EVER for the Memphis Zoo breeding program,” it said. Video of the hatching eggs is available on the zoo’s YouTube channel.