the.com/ribbon snake
A garter snake that skipped leg day and leaned all the way into cardio.
means A slender, fast-moving North American snake, closely related to garter snakes, with bold yellow racing stripes down a dark body and a notably long, whip-thin tail.
from The name is plain description, not legend: early English settlers and naturalists saw a thin, brightly striped body moving through grass near water and reached for the nearest household comparison — a ribbon. 'Ribbon' itself traces back through Middle English and Old French 'riban' to a Germanic root for a band or strip of cloth. 'Snake' is Old English 'snaca,' from a Germanic root meaning 'to crawl' or 'creep,' shared with words for slithering, sneaking movement. Put them together and you get exactly what naturalists were naming: a creeping thing shaped like a strip of cloth.
- build
- Thinner, longer tail than its garter cousins
- habitat
- Rarely strays far from water's edge
- diet
- Prefers frogs, barely bothers with earthworms
- defense
- Flees fast instead of standing to bite