Rainbow snakes spend almost all of their time underwater, hunting fish and eels, so sightings in Alabama are fairly rare. But if you do see one, you won’t forget it.

Colorful stripes run the entire length of their body, with reds, yellows, and dark blues making distinctive patterns across their bodies, which can reach five feet or more in length.

“They’re kind of these weird snakes that we just don’t know a lot about them because they’re really hard to find,” said Jimmy Stiles, a PhD candidate at Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife and the Environment.

When it comes to wildlife, Alabama is hard to beat. We’re one of the most biodiverse states in the country excluding Hawaii. We have animals that are cute, that are terrifying, delicious, stinky, slimy, regal, stunning, or any other adjective you want to throw out there. And we have more than just about any other state.

But what are the weirdest animals in Alabama?

Which are the ones that make people crinkle their nose and say “really?” Which species have the most unexpected appearance, behavior or biology? AL.com asked a wide range of wildlife experts and casual enthusiasts about the most unusual animals in the state, and we’ll be sharing their responses here in the coming days.

First up is the very large, brilliantly colored but rarely seen eel-hunting machine called the rainbow snake.

Stiles, at Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife and the Environment, said he has been nose to nose with just about every kind of reptile or amphibian in Alabama. He’s been beating the backwoods for critters for more more than 20 years and leads workshops on handling venomous snakes for first responders across the state, but one of his most memorable sightings was the time he came across a rainbow snake.

Stiles said he was was scuba diving in the Conecuh River working on a mussel survey, when he encountered the brilliant red, yellow and blue stripes of a rainbow snake. Suddenly the mussels could wait.

“That was the first one and the only one I’ve ever seen, so I took literally 1200 photos,” Stiles told AL.com.

The snakes feed on fish, primarily American eels, which in Alabama spend much of their life cycle in fresh and brackish water with direct connection to the Gulf of Mexico.

The eels are migratory, spending their young lives in freshwater streams before moving out to the Gulf of Mexico to reproduce. That’s where the rainbow snake is ready to strike.

“The rainbow snake eats them on their way up and down the river,” Stiles said.

They also tend to hunt at night, sleeping and digesting during the day, which is another reason they are rarely seen.

Stiles said the rainbow snakes used to be found in the Black Warrior as far as Tuscaloosa and in the Cahaba River near Centreville before the construction of large dams made migration difficult for the eels that the snake feeds on. Now the snakes are largely found, when they’re found at all, in fresh water streams and swamps near the coast,

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources considers the rainbow snake to be of “highest conservation concern,” though little is known about the population levels since the snake is so rarely encountered by people. The state wildlife department says rainbow snakes are only known in 10 locations in Alabama, all of which also contain populations of American eel.

Stiles said a rainbow snake was also spotted this year in Baldwin County, in someone’s backyard, after flood event.

“They’re just these weird creatures that almost seem mythical and show up just randomly here and there,” he said. “But never more than one or two a year get found in Alabama.”

“And most people if they see one, they’re gonna take a picture of it, because they’re just so weird and pretty and interesting.”