Four-lined Rat Snake
Scientific Name: Elaphe Quatuorlineata Muenteri
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The Four-Lined Rat Snakes, which one can find in Italy and other parts of Europe, are the longest in the colubridi family. Four-Lined Rat Snakes have yellow-brownish coats that have four lines running along their bodies. The line runs from behind their heads to the tip of their tails thus displaying unique trait. Adult Four-Lined Rat Snakes range between eighty centimeters and two hundred and forty centimeters; though rare, some of them grow up to length of one hundred and sixty centimeters. They have a slender structure in that the diameter of their heads is equivalent to the rest of the body.
Four-lined Rat Snakes Are Beautiful Creatures
Facts About Four-lined Rat Snakes
Geographic Location
Four-Lined Rat Snakes are common in the southern and central regions of Italy and they prefer places that have the Mediterranean climate such as sparse forests and forest edges. They prefer places that have sparse vegetation, walls made of stone, deserted buildings and sassaie.
Habitat
The Elaphe quatuorlineata muenteri specie is gradually declining due to the destruction of their habitat. Deforestation has greatly contributing to this because the four-lined snakes cannot survive in other environments. These snakes like to spend their winter in deserted rodent tunnels in groups of about four or seven.
Behavior
Four-Lined Rat Snakes feed on small animals such as mice, rabbits, squirrels, toporagni, arvicola and weasels. They also fed on birds such the nidiacei or pigeons; they sometimes feed on eggs, which they eat by swallowing it whole and then crushing it by use of the trunk muscles.
Reproduction
The male and female Four-Lined Rat Snakes usually mate for about five hours between the months of April and June. The female Four-Lined Rat Snake may lay from three to eight eggs at a go; the snake then hides the eggs in bushes or in hollows of a tree for about sixty days before the hatchlings are born.
