OtherNature

An up-close look at a female monarch laying eggs on my garden milkweed.

You can imagine this person's surprise when they looked up to see this gigantic ratsnake climbing straight up a streamside tree trunk. Ratsnakes are members of the Pantheropis genus, nonvenomous Colubrids found throughout Central and Eastern North America. While they are more commonly encountered on the ground, they are obviously excellent climbers as well!