THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
Loading taxon account
Retrieving account information and occurrence data...

Reptilia    Squamata (part-snakes)    Colubridae  
Baja California Ratsnake
Bogertophis rosaliae (Mocquard, 1899)
BOH-ger-TOH-fiss — roh-SAH-lee-eye
Taxon Links
iNaturalist
The Reptile Database
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
NatureServe
GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 77 Total; 57 Museum; 20 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.04.08.12.02.39)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: California

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named after the Baja California locality of Santa Rosalía.
Bogertophis — A patronym honoring Charles Mitchill Bogert (1908–1992), a distinguished American herpetologist, combined with ophis (ὄφις), Greek for “snake.” The name means “Bogert’s snake.”
rosaliae — A toponym referring to Santa Rosalía, a coastal town in Baja California Sur, Mexico, near the species’ type locality. The Latinized genitive form indicates “of Rosalía.”

First instance(s) of published English names:
Yellow Snake (Elaphe rosaliae: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.);


Selected References:
1899 Mocquard, François. Contribution a la fauna herpetologique de la Basse Californie. Nouvelles archives du Muséum d'histoire naturelle. 4th series. 1(2nd fasc):297–343
1983 Ottley, John R. and E. E. Jacobsen. Pattern and coloration of juvenile Elaphe rosalie with notes on natural history. Journal of Herpetology 17(2):189-191
1988 Dowling, Herndon G. and R. M. Price. A proposed new genus for Elaphe subocularis and Elaphe rosaliae. The Snake 20:52-63
1990 Price, Robert M. Bogertophis. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (497):1-2
1990 Price, Robert M. Bogertophis rosaliae. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (498):1-3
2007 Burbrink, Frank T. and Robin Lawson. How and when did Old World ratsnakes disperse into the New World? Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43:173-189

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 12 September 2026 01:37 CT
Site concept, design, and programming: Travis W. Taggart (CNAH President/Executive Director).
CNAH usage since 31 August 2026: 73,059 human page views • 37,548 visitors • 26,632 file accesses