Western Ribbon Snake

About the Western Ribbon Snake

The Western Ribbon Snake is an elegant, wire-thin garter-snake cousin - dark olive to black with three sharp yellowish stripes running the length of the body and a plain, unmarked belly. Large eyes and a slender white-marked face give it an alert, delicate look, and big adults can approach three feet while staying barely thicker than a pencil.

Ribbon snakes are never far from water. They hunt the margins of ponds, marshes, and creeks for frogs, tadpoles, and small fish, gliding effortlessly across the surface when pressed, and they are quick, nervous, and entirely harmless - their defense is speed, not biting. On cool mornings they bask on grass tussocks and low shrubs at the water's edge.

In Texas the Western Ribbon Snake is common across most of the state wherever permanent water meets cover, active from spring through fall. A stripe of yellow sliding through pondside grass is very often this species.