By Doug Backlund

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Snakes are not popular with some people, while the creatures fascinate other people. One person I know has snake phobia so severe that the mere sight of a snake, any snake, would send her sprinting in the direction with the fewest obstacles. Several years ago a live snake that was mailed to me turned up at the wrong address. When I went to retrieve it, I was asked what was in the strange package with the "handle gently" and "do not freeze" stamped on it. "A snake" I replied. As I opened the package, there was a two-way migration of people. Two left the room immediately saying unprintable things about snakes while two or three more came in, having heard that there was some kind of snake to see. The snake in question was a beautiful smooth green snake from the Pickerel Lake area. It made quite an impression on those with an interest in snakes. One can’t help but admire these brilliant green and completely harmless animals.

Except for the brilliant green color, the smooth green snake has no truly remarkable qualities that differentiate the species from other snake species. These small, docile snakes can be found in local areas of northeastern South Dakota and throughout the Black Hills. Outside of our state, the smooth green snake ranges from the New England states through the Great Lakes region and west to North Dakota and Nebraska. There are smaller isolated populations scattered through the Rocky Mountain states and one population on the coast of Texas. The smooth green snakes in the Black Hills are isolated or disjunct from any other populations.

Perhaps the most memorable quality of these snakes is their brilliant green color. A common local name for this snake is "grass snake" for they are almost exactly the same color as fresh, green grass. The belly can be pure white to a creamy white color. The bright red tongue has a black tip. Length is usually less than fourteen inches in South Dakota, but specimens have been recorded up to twenty-six inches.

The only other South Dakota snake that could be confused with a smooth green snake is the racer. Adult racers are sometimes a dull green but are never as brilliant as a smooth green snake. In addition, racers have a yellow throat, grow much larger, and are more aggressive. It is impossible to confuse a young racer with a smooth green snake, since juvenile racers have a blotched coloration much different from either adult racers or smooth green snakes.

Smooth green snakes are among the most docile of snakes. Even if they attempt to bite, the jaws are too small to inflict any damage. Usually, they just wind themselves around their captor’s fingers and await their fate. Reportedly, smooth green snakes make poor pets and are difficult to keep in captivity. It is best to just enjoy these snakes where they are encountered in the wild and release them where found.

In their preferred habitat of undisturbed woodlands, forests, wetland edges, or tall grass prairie the smooth green snake can be quite abundant. However, this species is highly susceptible to pesticides and habitat destruction. In some states populations are reduced to small, isolated remnants. Very little is known about the status of this species in South Dakota. Based on numerous reports the species seems to be common in most of the Black Hills and locally common in northeast South Dakota.

Little is know about the life history of smooth green snakes. Reports on breeding habits are highly varied. Apparently breeding can occur at any time during the summer months, but most activity occurs in May or June. By mid-summer the female will lay three to eleven cylindrical eggs in decomposing logs or mounds of dead vegetation. The eggs hatch in late summer and the young snakes begin foraging for food shortly after the skin is shed for the first time. Spiders, crickets, grasshoppers, and probably any arthropod prey small enough to be swallowed are taken. Winter is probably spent in small mammal burrows or other underground shelter. One Minnesota researcher found smooth green snakes, along with three other species of snake, wintering communally in abandoned ant mounds. Another Minnesota naturalist found 148 smooth green snakes, 101 northern red-bellied snakes, and eight plains garter snake hibernating in one anthill on October 10, 1934.