Windwolf
Crex Meadows ... Wildlife on the Meadows ... Smooth Green Snake
Smooth Green Snake
Opheodrys vernalis
The Smooth Green Snake is often called the Grass Snake. A beautiful snake which spends most of its time on the ground or in low shrubs.
The Smooth Green snake can be up to 36 inches long but tends to be more in the range of 20-24 inches in Wisconsin.
This snake is one of five Wisconsin snakes with unkeeled scales.
The habitat which the Smooth Green snake is found in includes grassy, moist meadows, native prairies, and clearings in pine forests.
Smooth Green snakes are day snakes, often found moving through grasses or shrubs. Their primary foods are worms, grubs, crickets, grasshoppers and smooth caterpillars. Some of this species decline may be due in part to pesticide use on their food sources.
Smooth Green snake reproduction occurs in the spring but the egg laying varies by individual. Egg clutch sizes range from 3-15 eggs. Some females will incubate the eggs until just a few days before they hatch, others will be laid and hatch around one month later.
Hibernation can include many individuals and their may be several snake species such as Garter or Red-bellied snakes with the hibernating Smooth Green snakes.
Pictures taken October 8, 2008 and are of the same individual.
