Description: Kansas glossy snakes are moderate-sized snakes with smooth scales that produce almost a glassy effect on the body surface. The background color of the body is cream often with a hint of yellow or orange. The belly is white with no markings. A series of approximately 50 brown or reddish-brown blotches run down the midline of the body. Smaller lateral blotches are also present but often are indistinct in large adults. They are extremely nervous snakes and when held, tend to continually move and typically will not wrap around a person’s hand or arm as do bullsnakes, ratsnakes and kingsnakes. Although Kansas glossy snakes superficially resemble bullsnakes, they can easily be distinguished based on a single characteristic – Kansas glossy snakes have smooth dorsal scales and bullsnakes have keeled dorsal scales.

Habitat: Habitat is normally semi-arid grasslands of the southwestern United States, from California in the west to Kansas in the east and as far south as Texas, and northern Mexico.

Range: The North American distribution of Kansas glossy snakes extends west to east from southwest Texas to central Oklahoma and north to south from east-central Colorado well into Mexico.

Found in these States: CO | KS | NE | NM | OK | TX

Diet: They are nonvenomous, nocturnal predators of small lizards.

Reproduction: Glossy snakes are oviparous. Adults breed in the late spring and early summer. Clutches average from 10 to 20 eggs. The eggs hatch in early summers and the newly hatched young are approximately 25 cm (9.8 in) in total length.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the large and probably relatively stable extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of subpopulations, and population size. This species is not threatened in most of its range.

Taxonomy: