Class Mascot: Coluber Constrictor

I think that our class mascot should be a snake, specifically the black racer or Coluber constrictor. Snakes are amazing animals, and are greatly misunderstood because not all snakes are dangerous and harmful, as most people wrongly assume! Before taking herpetology I was one of these people who negatively stereotyped snakes, however after studying them and having first hand experiences with them in the field I learned to appreciate them. Thus why I think a snake is the perfect class mascot. It came down to choosing between the cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) and the black racer (Coluber constrictor) as our class mascot. A mascot should be something that is very common for the item it represents, thus the fact that our class encountered these two snakes the most often on our field trips make the choice logical. However, given that A. piscivorus is poisonous and that no one had the chance to physically handle one, made choosing C. constrictor even easier.

Here are some other things that aided me in choosing Coluber constrictor as our class mascot. First off, I learned how the black racer got its name . . . because it is an extremely fast and elusive snake! In fact, on two separate occasions C. constrictor was so fast and elusive that we couldn't catch it at all. Black racers are one of the fastest snakes around, which amazed me because they don't even have limbs yet they can move faster than many animals with four limbs! This ability makes the open ground the perfect habitat for C. constrictor, yet they tend to remain relatively close to underbrush so they can quickly get to cover if needed. Furthermore, despite being such aggressive snakes, I never realized how an animal that is plain black could be so beautiful. Its all black body with smooth scales give it a very sleek look with a simplistic beauty. C. constrictor's beauty was magnified even more so at Donnelley Wildlife Refuge, where a classmate found a black racer that was getting ready to molt making its eyes and parts of its belly baby blue. This black racer was extremely eye appealing and definitely still is the coolest looking snake I've ever seen in the wild.

This being said, the black racer should be our class mascot based on three undeniable reasons: it was the most common snake we found in the field, its impressive quickness and elusiveness, and its unadorned beauty. Need there be any other reason!? So I hereby nominate Coluber constrictor to be our herpetology class mascot.

Click here for video of how fast and elusive black racers are