Northern scarlet snake in Missouri, USA

This video is called Florida Scarlet Snake.

From Kansas City infoZine News in the USA:

Unusual Snake Surfaces in Southeast Missouri

The scarlet snake looks very much like the more common red milk snake but has been found in only a handful of places in the Show-Me State.

A rare snake has surfaced in southeastern Missouri, giving Show-Me State herpetologists confirmation that the species still exists here.

Natural History Biologist Bob Gillespie reported the discovery of a northern scarlet snake (Cemophora coccinea copei) July 31. Prior to the most recent discovery, only five scarlet snakes had been documented in Missouri. State Herpetologist Jeff Briggler said the find resulted partly from luck and partly from scientific curiosity.

“Bob Gillespie and Brandon Blechle put out a few drift fences to see what herps they could find,” said Briggler. “It was a lucky catch.”

A drift fence is a low barrier that directs crawling animals toward a trap.

Briggler said Missouri and Arkansas mark the western extent of the scarlet snake’s distribution. They are fairly abundant along the East Coast. Nowhere are scarlet snakes seen as routinely as other species.

“They seem to be easier to find back east,” said Briggler, “but around here they have always been rare for a couple of reasons.”

One of those reasons, said Briggler, is that scarlet snakes are fossorial, which means they are adapted for digging and spend most of their lives underground, rarely emerging on the surface.

“We have had five official records of this species before this one, four in the Lake of the Ozarks-Fort Leonard Wood area and one south of Branson,” he said. “One of them was found under a rock on a glade. The others were found dead on roads. The last sighting was in 1978.” …

Briggler said the scarlet snake would be easy for amateur herpetologists to confuse with the red milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulatum).

First European hatching for rhino rat snake: here.