BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 29, 2020
Each year, people report a handful of nonnative reptiles and amphibians spotted crawling and slithering through the Maine wilderness — from boa constrictors to tiny tropical lizards — said Derek Yorks, a biologist with Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife that specializes in reptiles and amphibians. Yorks thinks that a black rat snake spotted in Belfast was likely a stowaway transported by vehicle or trailer from a southern state where the species is common. Native to much of the United States, the non-venomous black rat snake can be found as far northeast as Massachusetts, where it’s extremely rare and listed as endangered. No established population of the rat snake has ever been recorded in Maine. “It was really a surprising and dramatic sighting,” said Murray Carpenter of Belfast, who spotted the snake while riding his bike on the Belfast Rail Trail.