Shake, a female Eastern milk snake, recently came to live at Discovery Place Nature. She is on display in the Dragonfly Theatre.

Shake hatched in the fall of 2016, so she is a little over a year old and still quite small, only about a foot long.

At this stage in her life, she eats frozen pinkie mice and may spend most of her time hiding. Our naturalists plan to introduce her during a Live Animal Encounter as she gets bigger.

Eastern milk snakes are native to the Charlotte area and are considered a type of kingsnake (in the genus Lampropeltis).

They get their unusual name because of the mistaken belief that they would sneak into dairy barns at night to nurse off the cows! Naturally, farmers would find these snakes in their barns because they were hunting the vermin, not stealing milk.

They have a maximum length of around four feet.

There are 24 subspecies of milk snake found in North and South America. The patterns of many subspecies mimic venomous snakes, most likely as a defense mechanism. Because Eastern milk snakes resemble copperheads, many are needlessly harmed by humans.

Stop by the Museum and get to know Shake, our ambassador species for the Eastern milk snake!