The government wants to protect the habitat of a rare snake that lays 5-inch-long eggs

A Louisiana pine snake (Credit: Ian Fischer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

Four areas in Louisiana and two in Texas should be protected as critical habitat for a rare snake that eats pocket gophers and takes over the rodents' burrows, the federal government says.

Louisiana pinesnakes, which produce the largest eggs and hatchlings of any U.S. snake, have been protected as threatened since 2018.