The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says a snake found only in longleaf pine forests of southern Mississippi and Alabama should be listed as threatened.
It's asking for public comment about its proposal to list black pinesnakes as threatened.
Black pinesnakes are burrowing constrictors colored dark brown to black. Their small heads have pointed snouts. Adults range from 4 feet to nearly 6 feet long.
The agency says their main threat is loss of longleaf pine forests, which once covered about 90 million acres across the Southeast but were down to about 3 million acres in the 1990s.
Biologists say 11 populations are known in 11 Mississippi counties and three in Alabama. Black pinesnakes are considered eliminated from Louisiana, where they were last seen more than 30 years ago.
