It is not uncommon to have a doppelganger among human beings. After all, it is said that each has seven lookalikes in the world. Why not the same in the reptilian world then? One snake that one often gets confused with the venomous cobra is the rat snake. And what a downside for the latter! The similarity does not make the cobra look upon its fellow snake fondly — the rat snake continues to be its meal. It is favoured by snake charmers because of its large size and harmless nature, but that surely is not its biggest problem. It only minds when people try to kill it, mistaking it to be a cobra. In this article, we explore the world of the non-venomous rat snake.
Perhaps because of its propensity to survive in tough conditions, the rat snake is not fussy when it comes to its habitat. It is found in rainforests, scrub lands, semi-deserts, dry, moist and mixed deciduous forests, grasslands, mangroves, wetlands including urban areas, dense and open forests, hills and plains and agricultural lands. It is a diurnal species and lives comfortably on land as well as on trees. The snake is fast, alert and quick to respond.
At my house in Chennai, the rat snake is a constant visitor. Sometimes it is found swimming in the rain pool or resting languidly on my neighbour’s mango tree. It will later slither through the branches sniffing in search of small birds and squirrels. Sometimes we come face to face with this snake on opening our windows. In summer the snake is seen sipping water from beneath the mango tree trunk.
Any disturbance and it knows how to make its escape — move quickly from the mango tree to the lemon tree and then slither through the brick wall crevice to jump back into the rain pool — all in a minute! Sometimes it resorts to hiding under the stone rubble, well camouflaged.
Come the rainy season and there is a flurry of activity in the rain pool. Food is in abundance, thanks to the frog population found in the same pool that increases during this time. During winter I see it in my backyard as it basks on the acacia tree there while monitoring the area for any prey.
One day in my backyard I heard an alert call from a group of birds and squirrels. The perpetrators of this harsh symphony were the magpie robin, bulbul, koel, shrike, water hen and the kingfisher and it went on for a long time, prompting me to poke my head out of the window. Then I saw it sitting there — the resident yellowish rat snake coiled on the chopped tree stump and hissing and looking below at a mongoose, that kept running left and right and appeared wanting to leap on snake. The latter having its head raised a meter above on the tree stump was quite safe and the mongoose soon moved away into the bushes. Food waste thrown here attracts rats which in turn attracts rat snakes.
Again after two days, I heard the squirrel and the drongo’s alert calls. It was the mongoose again. But soon the bird calls stopped. I saw our resident rat snake jumping on to the acacia tree, with the mongoose in hot pursuit. The rat snake then jumped from the acacia tree in to the rain pool below. I never knew that this huge rat snake, which I considered the ruler of the rain pool habitat, would vanish at the sight of a mongoose.