A slim, harmless North American water snake that specialises almost entirely on freshly moulted crayfish.
Description
The queen snake is a slender olive-brown to grey snake under a metre long, with three faint dark stripes on the back and four pale yellow stripes on the belly. The body is smooth and slim, well suited to slipping under stream rocks.
Behavior
A specialist feeder, the queen snake eats almost exclusively freshly moulted, soft-shelled crayfish, which it hunts under flat stones in clear streams. It rarely takes other prey even in captivity. Sensitivity to its narrow diet makes the species vulnerable to water pollution and stream siltation.
Range
Distributed across the eastern United States and adjacent southern Ontario, mostly in the watersheds of the Ohio and lower Great Lakes. Populations have declined in many states as small streams have lost crayfish through agricultural runoff.
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Queen Snake starts with Q and ends with E. Browse other snakes along the same letter.
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