A Black Hills Venture: The search for a red-bellied snake

Kenny and I agreed that it was a long way from North Central Florida to southwest South Dakota just to try to see one little snake, so time and again we delayed the attempt. But finally the time seemed right.

We were planning a salamandering trip that would take us along most of the Pacific Coast so we'd start at the north (Washington) and work our way southward to southern California, then eastward and towards home. By starting in the north we could travel through the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, up into Montana. The time had come to try to see the Black Hills red-bellied snake, Storeria occipitomaculata pahasapae.

We allocated 3 weeks for the entire trip (and as it turned out we used every minute of it), allowing a couple of days to search out the Black Hills target.

Despite locales provided by a friendly researcher, finding the targeted "west of the heartland" red-bellied snake took more time and work that we had thought it would. It seemed that we had arrived a week or two later than was best and the little snakes had already left the hibernaculas. Not only had they dispersed, but seemingly most were already in subsurface retreats.

We persevered and after several hours of searching, Kenny found one of the reclusive and seclusive snakes. It was the only example of the subspecies found. Remembering how difficult it had been to justify the trip to the Black Hills, many more photos than were actually needed were taken.

Then westward, ho!

The dorsal color of the Black Hills red-bellied snake may be brown or gray. The pair of dark dorsolateral stripes of the Black Hills red-bellied snake are usually prominent.

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.