![]() Female indigo snakes use the burrows of tortoises and other animals for breeding and laying eggs, which typically occurs between October and February. The snakes also have been known to take shelter in hollow logs and the burrows of rodents, armadillos, and even land crabs. In these areas, it shares this habitat with the gopher tortoise ( Gopherus polyphemus), which digs extensive burrows in the loose soil that are shared by indigo snakes seeking refuge from extreme cold and heat. In Alabama, as in Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, the eastern indigo snake has historically preferred raised sandy ridges in proximity to stands of longeaf pines and scrub oaks. Smaller indigo snakes are easily mistaken for the common black racer, but the black racer is slender and quick and the indigo snake is stouter and slower-moving. Mature individuals are typically a uniform glossy blue-black, although some specimens exhibit reddish orange or cream coloration on the throat, cheeks, and chin. Exceptionally large individuals are possible the largest indigo snake recorded was 9.2 feet (2.8 meters) long, and the heaviest was more than 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms). ![]() The indigo snake is one of the longest native North American snakes and the second heaviest, with a thick body that can reach up 6 to 7 feet in length (2.13 to 2.45 meters). ![]() Holbrook gave the species the scientific name Drymarchon couperi from the Greek “drymarchon” (roughly meaning “lord of the forest” for the snake’s impressive size and girth) and “couperi” to honor the man who brought him a live specimen. Holbrook’s taxonomy was based on a specimen captured live and brought to him by Georgia planter James Hamilton Couper. The eastern indigo snake was first described in 1842 by pioneering nineteenth-century naturalist and herpetologist John Edwards Holbrook, author of North American Herpetology or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. The genus Drymarchonalso includes the Texas indigo snake as well as several Central American species and one possible species reported in Venezuela. The common name of this species is derived from its large glossy scales, which take on the blackish-purple color indigo in bright light. In Alabama, the snake was historically reported in southern pine plains and hills in Mobile, Baldwin, and Covington Counties but prior to the reintroduction effort had not been documented in the state since 1954. Recent and ongoing reintroduction efforts are attempting to re-establish the species in southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle, however. Despite once occurring widely in the coastal plain of the southeastern United States from Georgia to Mississippi, as of the early twenty-first century eastern indigo snake populations are typically only found in southeastern Georgia and peninsular Florida. The eastern indigo snake ( Drymarchon couperi ) is a large nonvenomous snake of the Colubridae family. ![]()
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