A Coffee County man captured a rare sight over the weekend – a black racer eating another snake. Manuel Saavedra heard a commotion in some bushes on property he owns and walked over to investigate. It was there that he saw the two snakes struggling. Manuel submitted the photo in order to identify the two snakes he had seen – which are a black racer (the eater) and a hognose snake (the eatee; I know this isn’t a word but I like it in this context).
Black racers are common in Coffee County and throughout South Georgia. They are one of the few snakes that like hot weather – they are often seen out and about in the middle of the day, even on the hottest days. They also tend to be found in yards and around homes.
Black racers are long and slender and, as their name implies, they are very fast. They like to run first, bite second. But if you corner one, you’re going to have your hands full. They are very defensive and they will throw themselves at you when they bite – and they can fling their bodies an impressive distance when they’re upset.
While their scientific name – Coluber constrictor – suggests that black racers constrict their prey when they eat, that is not the case. Racers are non-venomous but they subdue their prey by biting the prey’s head and pinning it to the ground. If the prey item is lucky, it dies from the strength of the racer’s bite. If it’s not lucky, it gets swallowed alive and expires inside the snake (it’s the same technique used by the similarly colored but larger and stronger indigo snakes). And that’s why Manuel heard the commotion in the bushes – the hognose snake was struggling to get away from the racer’s jaws. For the record, hognose snakes use a similar tactic. They are primarily frog and toad eaters, and they often swallow their meals alive, too.
Many people believe that only king snakes eat other snakes. That, however, is not the case. Many species of snakes prey on their own kind, including black racers, indigo snakes, cottonmouths, and coachwhips. The easiest thing for a snake to swallow is another snake and lots of species take advantage of that when the opportunity arises.
While this happens often in nature, people don’t get to see it very often. It was fun getting a glimpse into this corner of the reptile world.