Reptilia · Squamata
Masticophis piceusCope, 1892
Coachwhip
Photograph by Diana, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Nearctic region, reaching 167 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Masticophis
- Grows to
- 1670mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than 92% 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
20 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1670mm5 ft 6 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 399.2g14.1 oz
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Active season · months of the year
- 7months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1800m
lizards, birds and their eggs, snakes, frogs, mammals, turtles, large inscts and carrion (Stebbins and McGinnis 2012, see also Lemm 2006)
run down prey, Stebbins and McGinnis 2012
(e.g., Lemm 2006), primarily diurnal (Stebbins and McGinnis 2012)
see e.g., Stebbins and McGinnis 2012
Lemm 2006 (usually below 900 but up to 1800)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–20eggs
Stebbins and McGinnis 2012
4-20 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2012), max 20 (Lemm 2006)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Described by
- Cope
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1892
- Type locality
- USA
Keeping one
5 ft 6 in × 2 ft 9 in × 4 ft 1 in(167 × 84 × 125 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 5 ft 6 in (1670 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Coachwhip. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
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.
40kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 399 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
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Average clutch
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — 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
- — Venomous
- — Fangs
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Conservation status
- — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Biome
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Subspecies
- — Habitat
- — 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 piceus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/masticophis-piceus
@misc{masticophis_piceus_2026,
title = {Masticophis piceus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/masticophis-piceus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.