Brown Snake
Storeria dekayi

Photo by JD Willson

Description: Brown snakes are usually light brown in color, but may be rather gray or reddish brown. The brown snake typically has a pale stripe running down the middle of its back and has a row of small dark spots on its sides. The belly is whitish and often has black spots along its edges. Brown snakes have rough (keeled) scales.

Feeding/Diet: They are frequent inhabitants of flowerbeds and eat slugs, earthworms, and snails.

Habitat/Range: This snake is common in vacant lots and forested areas and may be found under trash, logs, and rocks.

Reproduction: During the summer, brown snakes give live birth to 4–25 young.

Back to Snakes of North Carolina
Back to Herps of North Carolina

The shaded region represents the range of the brown snake in North Carolina.

Photo by Eric Stine

A reddish individual.
Photo by RW Van Devender

A brown snake feeding on an earthworm.
Photo by RW Van Devender

Photo by RW Van Devender Photo by JD Willson


This website created by: J. Willson, Y. Kornilev, W. Anderson, G. Connette and E. Eskew.
For comments or questions contact M. Dorcas: midorcas@davidson.edu.
M. Dorcas homepage: http://bio.davidson.edu/dorcas
Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina 28035-1719.

Text and maps from: Dorcas, M. E. 2004. A Guide to the Snakes of North Carolina. Davidson College - Herpetology Laboratory, Davidson, NC. – Copyright by Michael E. Dorcas.

Partial Funding for this website provided by a Associate Colleges of the South, National Science Foundation, and Duke Energy.