Glenn Bartley

My advice would be to collect any wild snakes legaly. In New York that requires at least a hunting license for snakes. Of course the regulations refer to a permit, but when you check with the DEC you will find that they liely only require a hunting license. This of course requires you to either take a hunter safety course (about 2 to 3 days long) or already have a license elsewhere. New York's Department of Environmental Conservation can be found at this linkNY/DEC . The NY Dec has a pretty good reptile atlas of the state atNY State Reptile & Amphibian Atlas Project that may be of some help to you. Black Rat Snakes have a fairly limited range in NY.