Summer — June/July 2026
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Speaking of Wildlife

Introducing Mimic,
the eastern foxsnake

by Jamie Proctor

Welcome to the twenty-seventh column introducing the residents of Speaking of Wildlife: Ontario animals that can’t be released back into the wilderness due to permanent injuries or over-habituation to humans. To ring in summer, we’ll be looking at the most duplicitous (though benign) creature on the premises: Mimic the eastern foxsnake.

Although as a species the eastern foxsnake contains multitudes – they are one of the largest snakes in Ontario (just behind the gray ratsnake and competing with the blue racer, both fellow nonvenomous colubrids) at up to 1.8 meters or so; they’re competent swimmers and climbers; they are formally considered Threatened by Ontario, which is not endangered but is the next-worst thing – Mimic’s name encapsulates his species’ most well-known feature.

An adult eastern foxsnake possesses a beautifully blotchy body and when confronted with harm will agitatedly vibrate its tail, which, especially in dried leaves, will produce a harsh buzzing sound. This allows the foxsnake to be confused with the venomous eastern massasauga rattlesnake by a predator, which is much cheaper and less complicated than actually producing venom yourself.

The two can be discerned in a number of ways, not least being:

  • the eastern foxsnake does not actually have a rattle at the tip of its tail.
  • the eastern foxsnake’s pupils are round dots, rather than vertical slits.
  • the eastern foxsnake can grow over a metre long and is more slender in build.
  • the eastern foxsnake’s background (non-blotched) body colour is lighter and less gray.

 When the disguise fails, as a backup defense the foxsnake will instead proceed to plan B: squirting harmless but foul-smelling (and foxlike, hence the name) musk all over whatever’s trying to accost it. After that, they might give up and try biting, but that’s more or less what you should expect from any desperate animal in possession of a mouth and it really shouldn’t be held against them, much like you shouldn’t be holding an eastern foxsnake.

 They’ve got enough problems: well over half the species’ total range is down to two strips of habitat in Canada, along the eastern coast of Georgian Bay and in the Carolinian south end of Ontario near Lake Erie. In the former they must confront cottages encroaching on their shoreline homes and nervous cottagers mistaking them for rattlesnakes (who, it must be stressed, ALSO should be left in peace); in the latter they’re facing wetland loss and must also have to deal with a truly preposterous amount of road traffic, whether they’re just trying to get somewhere or unwisely enjoying a nice warm asphalt surface.  Be kind to the snakes: leave them alone.

When left alone, the eastern foxsnake enjoys eating small mammals and bird eggs and young (which it will swallow whole or constrict, size permitting); overwintering underground (in rock crevices, old burrows, elderly building foundations, etc); swimming surprisingly long distances (several kilometers and more – if you can just see the head poking out of the water it’s a watersnake, while foxsnakes pretty much whole-body float on top); and laying eggs wherever it can find a good spot (which can mean having to share space with a few other clutches in the Carolinian population).

Mimic, like Speaking of Wildlife’s other snakes, was born in captivity for the purposes of education, making him one of a slender number of SOW residents who are NOT incapable of fending for themselves in the wild. That said, he is pretty happy to be fed a steady diet of Roden Fruz (the rodents are thawed to appropriate temperature first), be given ample warmth and hiding places, and be quietly informed he’s a good boy.

Much like our gray rat snakes, the mutual incompatibility of my work schedule and Mimic’s breakfast timetables means that I have little direct one-on-one time with him beyond my morning check-in where I make sure his lights are working, examine the quality of his water dish (usually immaculate unless he’s decided it’s bath time), and see if he’s peeled off and discarded his entire outermost layer of skin like a perfectly normal person does. He is peaceful in his place, and I try and preserve that.

Speaking of Wildlife is a wildlife sanctuary in Severn, Ontario. Book a tour or birthday party today to meet Mimic and his friends, or see them on their travels around Ontario this summer.