Memorial Day Office Closure
Colorado Parks and Wildlife offices will be closed for the state holiday, Monday, May 25. To honor military members for their service CPW offers active duty military and veteran benefits to enjoy fishing, hunting and state parks.
The Smith's black-headed snake lives primarily underground.
Also called the southwestern blackhead snake. It is a rear-fanged, venomous snake, but is considered harmless to humans due to its small size and venom being specialized to arthropods.
Upper scales smooth (unkeeled), uniformly brownish; dark cap on head usually extending three or fewer scale lengths beyond the rearmost large scales on top of the head; rear edge of dark cap typically straight or rounded; belly orange; anal scale divided; maximum total length about 12.2 inches (31 cm).
West-central Colorado at elevations of about 4,500-6,500 feet. Secretive, usually difficult to find, but locally common.
Mouths of large canyons in areas dominated by sandy, rock-laden soils and xerophytic shrubs (greasewood, sagebrush, saltbush); narrow bottoms of deep, rocky canyons near streamside cottonwood trees; rocky, shrubby slopes above creeks; under rocks in piñon-juniper woodland; under trash in dumps.
The diet includes centipedes, millipedes, beetle larvae, caterpillars, and likely spiders and other small invertebrates.
Females lay eggs, probably in late June or July.
