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Volume XX – 1954 Nature Notes
Snakes In Crater Lake National Park
By Richard M. Brown, Assistant Park Naturalist
Each summer members of the park staff are asked a few times by cautious visitors, “Are there any snakes here?” or perhaps more frequently, “Are there any poisonous snakes here?” To the second question we are able to answer promptly and happily, “No.” To the first we could reply that there was only one snake known for the park — until the summer of 1954 at least, but that is another story which I will come to a little farther along.
The only species of snake ever found alive in Crater Lake National Park is Fitch’s Barter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi Fox.
Although snakes with the normal coloration have been found in the lake and on Wizard Island, no specimens exhibiting melanism/dark phase of this pronounced type have been found within the park except inside the lake basin.
Farner and Kezer (1953) suggest that “the conformance of this color with the color of the rocks in the environment may be of selective value.”
Reference is being made to the dark lava rock comprising, particularly, the lower portions of Wizard Island. This possibility would seem to be supported by the studies of Fitch (1941), who found that brightness and distinctness of pattern in Thamnophis ordinoides were influenced more by the nature of the vegetation in the special ecological niches occupied than by climatic and other physical conditions.
On August 24, 1954, a snake was found dead on the Rim Drive, about one to two miles east of the Castle Crest Wild Flower Garden parking area, by Mr. Jack Boykin, a park visitor. Although it was in poor condition and lacked a head entirely, Mr. Boykin brought the specimen to Park Headquarters. It has now been identified fairly certainly as a Pacific rubber boa, Charina bottae bottae Blainville, even without the head characteristics, by reaching a maximum count of forty-five scale rows in several attempts. This specimen has been added to the park collections (CLNP 647).
The Pacific rubber boa has been observed occasionally in the area of Union Creek Camp, about seven miles west of the western boundary of Crater Lake National Park.
It seems possible that the finding of a Pacific rubber boa on the Rim Drive may represent the natural distribution of the species. Until more records are available for the park, however, the natural occurrence of this snake within the area must be regarded as a tentative assumption. It is of course possible that this individual was brought into the park by a visitor.
A visitor to Crater Lake National Park may likely never catch sight of a snake within the area, even if some time should be spent in looking for one. For this reason we are particularly pleased with Mr. Boykin’s discovery of a rubber boa, and we are grateful for the fact that he was sufficiently interested in his find to bring it to our attention.
So keep your eyes open for these interesting creatures, not so much to avoid stepping on one, but rather to have perhaps the unusual opportunity of watching one of the rarer animals of the park. If you should be fortunate enough to see a snake during your stay here, it may well be a new record. In any event, members of the naturalist staff will be happy to hear about it.
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