Was with a fellow enthusiast about a week ago and came across an extraordinarily large Rat Snake shed. My boot is ~12" so I measured it with that and it appeared to be ~9ft. The skin was days old and starting to separate, but pretty much all of the shed skin from the belly was held in by the low grass and was continuous. We were astonished. In the 35+ years I have spent snake hunting in and around Memphis, I have never seen a Rat Snake from the area--dead or alive--over 5.5 feet.That is out of HUNDREDS of specimens. I have found a few in other areas that were 6' plus.
I could not stop thinking about it, so I went back two days later and brought a tape measure. It measured 112" and this did not include any of the head (it was missing) and either part of its actual tail had either broken off or the last few inches of shed had withered away. Plus, the skin was crooked and I could not straighten it out without completely destroying it so I had to just run the tape measure straight. Guessing that I lost a few inches that way. This puts the shed in the ~10 foot range. WOW! I have been going back to the area every day since spending hours trying to find the beast. It's probably a wise snake to have grown so large. I'm guessing it is hiding high up in a tree.
So my question is...if the skin was 10 feet long, how long do you think the snake was?
Found a 10 foot long Rat Snake shed in TN. How big was the snake???
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Re: Found a 10 foot long Rat Snake shed in TN. How big was the snake???
A good rule of thumb is that sheds are 25-30% longer than the snake's length. In some cases sheds can be 50% longer than the snake. I'd guess your rat snake is a 7-8 foot animal. Which is a LONG snake.
Like you, I've seen hundreds of rat snakes. A few were over 6 feet long. The thing about those long snakes that impress me is the girth. They get proportionately thicker as they get longer.
Like you, I've seen hundreds of rat snakes. A few were over 6 feet long. The thing about those long snakes that impress me is the girth. They get proportionately thicker as they get longer.