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Is this a BLACK RAT SNAKE
or a black racer?
To find out visit our
reptile house
and see both types, as well as
other kinds of snakes.
New York state is home to 17 species of snakes. These
animals, whose tubular, limbless bodies are instantly and universally
recognized, produce mixed reactions among people, from fear to fascination.
Serpents figure prominently in the mythologies of nearly all human
cultures; however, only in some religions are they a symbol of evil and
temptation. It is perhaps for this reason that snakes often are persecuted
and killed without any understanding of their true nature.
Snakes play critical roles in
the environments where they occur, primarily by the position they hold in
food webs in natural communities. Many snakes are top level predators; for
example, a single rat snake can consume over 100 rodents a year. Other
snakes are important in the control they exert on insect and other
invertebrate populations. All snakes form part of the diet of other
predators such as hawks and foxes and thereby serve to link higher and
lower feeding levels.
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