Reptilia · Squamata
Masticophis flagellumShaw, 1802
Coachwhip
Photograph by MH Herpetology, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
_Madden_Haag.jpg){kind=link}
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Nearctic region, reaching 260 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Masticophis
- Grows to
- 2600mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 20.2years
Longer than 99% of all colubrid snakes anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 98 to 3,800 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
36 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Two of these figures disagree
Body mass (a typical adult) is given as 6,484, and Body mass (greatest) as 1,132.5 — but a typical adult cannot outweigh the heaviest one ever recorded. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2007
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 20.2years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 31.6°C89 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 31.6°C
Stark et al. 2020
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 2600mm8 ft 6 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 325mm13 in
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 3.72g0.13 oz
- Body mass · greatestcomputeddisputed
- 1132.5g2.5 lb
- Body mass · a typical adultdisputed
- 6484g14 lb
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2520m
"Across its range, C. flagellum is a dietary generalist (e.g., insects, birds, herpetofauna, small mammals) that most frequently preys on lizards, but ophiophagy of other snakes (including cannibalism) is not uncommon (see dietary lists in Ernst and Ernst 2003; Holycross and Mitchell 2020)." (Johnson and Blais 2021)
Active (Guyer et al. 2019, Beane et al. 2010, Camper 2019, Grismer and Grismer 2022), mixed: "the Coachwhip is an active diurnal forager and its swiftness allows it to quickly overcome and swallow prey (Ernst and Ernst 2003). However, C. flagellum also employs a highly successful ambush strategy from vegetated cover for the capture of swift saurian prey" (Johnson and Blais 2021)
Guyer et al. 2019, Beane et al. 2010, Camper 2019, Hu et al. 2020, O'Shea 2018, Johnson and Blais 2021, Grismer and Grismer 2022
Hu et al. 2020, O'Shea 2018
Sandhills and Coastal Plain (Beane et al. 2010), Coastal Plain and Piedmont (Camper 2019), 0-2500 (O'Shea 2018), 0-2515 (Feldman 2015)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 10.7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–24eggs
- Mean clutch
- 7eggs
Meiri et al. 2019
2-12 mean=7 (Guyer et al. 2019), 4-15 (Beane et al. 2010), 8-15 (Camper 2019), 4-24 (O'Shea 2018), up to 20 (Grismer and Grismer 2022), 4-20 (Phillips et al. 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Masticophis flagellum cingulum LOWE & WOODIN 1954 Masticophis flagellum flagellum (SHAW 1802) Masticophis flagellum lineatulus SMITH 1941 Masticophis flagellum piceus (COPE 1892) Masticophis flagellum ruddocki BRATTSTROM & WARREN 1953 Masticophis flagellum testaceus (SAY 1823)
- Described by
- Shaw
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1802
- Type locality
- USA
Keeping one
8 ft 6 in × 4 ft 3 in × 6 ft 5 in(260 × 130 × 195 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own total length of 8 ft 6 in (2600 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 89 °F (31.6 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
102kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 1,133 g, the heaviest recorded for Coachwhip — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
- — Range size
Others in Colubridae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Masticophis flagellum. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/masticophis-flagellum
@misc{masticophis_flagellum_2026,
title = {Masticophis flagellum},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/masticophis-flagellum}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.