Bullsnake

Bullsnake or Bull Snake.
Sometimes one word, sometimes two.

This guy has been seen around here before, or one like him, just never had the opportunity to take a picture of him. Well this time, he was in our garage and had to be removed, which was quite the activity. He wanted to stay in the garage where it was nice and cool. NO WAY, You are outta here, man.

We knew he was harmless or non-venomous, but he will bite and did attack the stick we used to get him moving out of the garage.
About 4 to 5 feet long.
He's a hissing constrictor.
Eats gophers and mice, among other things.
Predators: hawks and eagles.

The coloring on photos was warm (brown) indoors and cool (black) outdoors, so now I can't recall what color he really was for sure. A mix of brown and black, probably.

Class Reptilia
Order Squamata
Suborder Serpentes
Family Colubridae
Genus Pituophis

The best info found from googling Genus Pituophis (bullsnakes, gopher snakes, and pine snakes)

Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) is a subspecies of gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer)

Note on ref found at link above:
The Center for North American Amphibians and Reptiles (CNAAR)
was renamed
The Center for North American Herpetology (CNAH)
in 2000.

I've also seen the bullsnake categorized as Pituophis melanoleucus (pine snake) and as subspecies, Pituophis melanoleucus sayi.

More LINKS:

herpnet
Choose Iowa or Minnesota. They both had the exact same info on Bullsnake.

enchantedlearning
Kinda cheesy site, but actually had a very good summary of bullsnake.

herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with reptiles and amphibians

npwrc
Reptiles and Amphibians of North Dakota
Snakes:
1. Bullsnake
2. Common Garter Snake
3. Plains Garter Snake
4. Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) [ND's only poisonous snake]
5. Racer
6. Redbelly Snake
7. Smooth Green Snake
8. Western Hognose Snake (Heterdon nasicus)