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Yellow-bellied or Blue Racer (Coluber constrictor)

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Family: Colubridae

Size: 36-72 in.

Status: Protected Wild Animal

Description: This sleek and slender snake is among North America's fastest snakes, traveling up to 4 mph. Adult coloration, present at about three years of age, is uniform and can vary from light to dark bluish, grayish or greenish. Hatchlings are heavily mottled with numerous dark blotches on the top and speckled with reddish-brown spots on the bottom. Yellow-bellied racers prefer open dry prairies, oak savannas, and old fields where sand is the dominant soil. Their diet consists of rodents, insects, amphibians and other reptiles.