Red Racer (Coluber flagellum piceus)

Created: August 26th, 2016 - 12:50 PM
Last Modified: August 26th, 2016 - 12:50 PM Entered by: Trysten Loefke
Record 264292

Country: United States		State: California	County: San Diego County	Time: 2016-08-24 13:16:00
Qty: 1	Age: Sub-Adult	Sex: --	Method: Road cruising	Habitat: Coastal sage scrub
Body Temperature: -----		Air Temperature: -----	Ground Temperature: -----	Humidity: -----
Sky Conditions: Few clouds		Moon Phase: -----	Elevation: -----	Barometric Pressure: -----

Notes

We were driving down the road and saw a snake reeling and flopping on the shoulder. We instinctively assumed that it had been hit by one of the cars in front if us and we slowed to identify it as we passed. The snake was instantly recognized as a Red Racer (C. f. piceus), a species I had not yet encountered in San Diego. And so we flipped a U-turn and drove back the other way. As we drove past again (on the other side of the road) the snake appeared to have no have no head and the first eight inches of it appeared to have been completely mushed and flattened. I threw on a pair of rubber gloves, intending to examine the specimen, and made another U-turn and pulled off next to the snake, looking at it through the passenger-side window I suddenly saw that that the Racer wasn't dead nor had it been run over, but that it appeared to be trying to swallow a San Diego Alligator Lizard (E. m. webbii). The Racer and the Alligator Lizard had now rolled into the road so (not wanting them to be hit) I jumped from the car and pulled them off, as I did so I realized that the Racer wasn't eating the Alligator Lizard at all, but in fact the exact opposite appeared to be happening, the Alligator Lizard had almost the entire head of the Racer in its jaws.
I threw them both in the car, with them both continuing to do death-rolls, and we drove up a short distance to where we could pull over properly.
As we drove (only about 50 yards) I attempted to free the the Racer from the Alligator lizard. The Racer's head and mouth were bleeding and it appeared to have lost an eye. As I attempted to pry the Alligator Lizard's jaws from the Racer's head, the Alligator Lizard turned and latched onto me, freeing the Racer. I then passed the snake over to one of the other passengers in the car (who is also experienced at snake handling) and we then got out of the car. It took about 20 minutes to coax the lizard to let go of my hand, but once it did it scurried off into the brush.
The Racer remained surprisingly calm and we were able to examine and clean it a little.
The Racer hadn't lost its eye after all and the bleeding stopped almost immediately. The Racer was then released back into the brush.
What I believe had happened was that the Racer (being a mostly reptile-eating species) was hunting the Alligator Lizard and bit it somewhere in the tail region (And anyone who has handled alligator lizards will know that if you hold them anywhere from the middle of the body to the back legs, they will turn around and bite you.) this would have put the Racer's head in the prime position to have been bitten by the Alligator Lizard, whereupon the Racer would have let go of the Alligator Lizard and they went into a death-roll on the side of the road.
I am glad we found them when we did or they both would have been hit when they rolled out into the road.