young Queen snake
They haven't been seen in New Jersey for almost 50 years, but Queen Snakes, and are making their way back into NJ. Right off, Queen snakes are not venomous. They're also not aggressive but they will bite if provoked.
They've now been classified as "rediscovered" in New Jersey. To give their population a chance to come back, the New Jersey Pinelands Commission will not disclose exactly where a Queen snake was found in order to keep them safe from illegal snake hunters.
This rare discovery was made outside of the Pinelands by Jeff Dragon, a Pinelands Commission Research Scientist, in April 2024. The last recorded sighting in NJ was in 1977.
Queen snakes (Regina septemvittata) are slender, aquatic snakes that are tan to dark brown in color, with a yellow stripe along its lower side. It has a yellow belly with four brown stripes that run the length of its body. They grow to be about 24 inches in length. The queen snake is similar in appearance to a garter snake, genus Thamnophis, so is often confused with that group.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection theorizes that the queen snake population in New Jersey decreased over time because of to stream channelization, water pollution, and stream bank erosion, all of which crashed the population of their main food source - crayfish. The species had been listed as extirpated in the state. It is listed as endangered by the state
Historically, they were uncommon among the roughly 23 species of snake known to be present in New Jersey and were seen along a narrow section beside the Delaware River, from Trenton to Gloucester County.
R. septemvittata is known by many common names, including the following: banded water snake, brown queen snake, diamond-back water snake, leather snake, moon snake, North American seven-banded snake, olive water snake, pale snake, queen water snake, seven-striped water snake, striped water snake, three-striped water snake, willow snake, and yellow-bellied snake.
MORE INFO
dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/njfw/queensnk.pdf
dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/njfw/queen_snake.pdf
nytimes.com/2024/04/30/nyregion/queen-snakes-new-jersey.html
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