Curious Behavior

[Bogertophis]

Is there a difference. I think I read somewhere that they were one and the same?

Nope, they have different ranges, but are very similar & could interbreed (though I would never do that & don't recommend it...there's no reason to).
Plus, bull snakes get a little bigger. Both are close cousins with pine snakes too, but again, different range. When I lived in So Calif. we had native gopher snakes,
but no bull snakes. The ones (bull snakes) I had came from c/b sources, but my gopher snakes were locals.