Reptiles

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Reptiles of Kentucky

​Overview

Reptiles (formerly Class Reptilia) include about 3,700 kinds of lizards, 2,300 snakes, and 240 turtles and tortoises worldwide. Snakes and lizards (Class Lepidosauromorpha) are now recognized as biologically distinct from turtles (Class Testudines) and have been placed in completely separate groups. For the sake of simplicity, we will continue to treat all of our snakes, lizards, and turtles as reptiles.

At present, 56 species of reptiles are known to occur in Kentucky (10 lizards, 32 snakes, and 14 turtles). One additional snake – the Eastern Coachwhip – has not been seen in Kentucky in more than 40 years and was probably not native to our state in the first place. Most of our reptiles are native, but at least 2 species (Common Wall-lizard and Mediterranean House Gecko) are exotics that have been introduced into Kentucky from other parts of the world. Download a copy of our snake booklet.

Ecology​

Kentucky’s reptiles occur in a wide variety of habitats. In general, our lizards tend to prefer dry, open areas, although some types of skinks also occur in damp woodlands. From a habitat perspective, the snakes form a highly variable group; some are largely aquatic and must live in and near water; others are primarily terrestrial. Some kinds of snakes spend most of their time underground in burrows and small mammal runways, and some are largely arboreal and spend most of their time climbing among trees, shrubs, and vines. Most Kentucky turtles (13 of 14) are aquatic and leave the water only to make overland migrations between water bodies or lay their eggs. Only 1 species (Eastern Box Turtle) is terrestrial. All of Kentucky’s lizards and snakes are carnivorous; most turtles are omnivorous as adults and largely carnivorous as hatchlings, but our four kinds of map turtles feed almost completely on freshwater invertebrates.

Research and Monitoring

KDFWR pays special attention to about 46% of the Kentucky reptile fauna (4 lizards, 16 snakes, and 6 turtles) in response to a variety of conservation issues. Some species have extremely limited ranges in the state; some occur only in widely scattered colonies and disappear due to long-term changes in habitat, and others become scarce for unknown reasons. In addition, we keep track of a few species that are doing just fine here in Kentucky but are declining in some of our neighboring states. Some of KDFWR’s activities on behalf of the​​se reptiles include spotting scope surveys and transect counts for basking snakes and turtles, laying out and regularly checking cover boards and old roofing tin to track snake and lizard numbers in selected areas, nighttime road cruising for snakes, surveying new areas and habitats, identifying snakes from photos and shed skins submitted to KDFWR from the public, supporting university research, and creating detailed occurrence maps for each species to provide a baseline for future work.

Species List

Below is a complete list of reptile species known from Kentucky. Those marked with a leaf icon"​" are currently being studied, tracked, monitored, or given special management consideration as species of greatest conservation n​eed under the Kentucky​ State Wildlife Action Plan.