Basin wiki · Animals
Gopher snake
Pituophis catenifer · Pacific gopher snake
A harmless constrictor that mimics a rattlesnake — the usual “is that a rattler?” in a yard.
In the basin
Gopher snakes flatten the head, hiss, and buzz the tail in dry leaves. They have a slender head and no rattle. If you cannot see those marks without closing in, treat it as a rattlesnake and walk around. They eat rodents. Wikipedia and CDFW have the living-with notes.
