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Glossy snake

Arizona elegans · Snakes · Reptiles

Glossy snake (Arizona elegans): Medium non-venomous snake, 75-130 cm typical (up to 178 cm), with smooth glossy scales. Light beige or grey ground colour with dark-edged blotches filled with gold, brown or olive-grey. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Arizona elegans
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Central and southern California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, Colorado, southern Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, south into Baja California and Mexico; not in Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Medium non-venomous snake, 75-130 cm typical (up to 178 cm), with smooth glossy scales. [1][2]

Light beige or grey ground colour with dark-edged blotches filled with gold, brown or olive-grey. [1][2]

Prominent eye stripe, lidless eyes with slightly vertical pupils, single anal scale, countersunk lower jaw. [1][2]

Juveniles similar but darker marked, lightening with age; sexes alike. [1][2]

Field knowledge

Where it lives

Semi-arid grassland, sandy desert and scrub, sagebrush flats, chaparral and rocky washes, preferring open areas with sandy or loamy soil. [1][2]

Shelters and lays eggs underground; from below sea level to about 2,200 m. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Crepuscular and nocturnal, mostly active April-September; primarily nocturnal, sometimes by day. [1][2]

Excellent burrower; uses crevices and rodent burrows as daytime retreats. Constrictor; about half its diet is other reptiles, especially lizards. [1][2]

Gentle and calm; moves by lateral undulation. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Central and southern California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, Colorado, southern Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, south into Baja California and Mexico; not in Canada.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology