I think the herpetologists in the U.S. actually have far too little to do & this is a "make-work" situation?Bear in mind that these snakes will happily inter-breed in areas where they over-lap. Personally, none of this is keeping me awake nights- and while I might have more years in, your guess is probably as good as mine!
To the best of my knowledge, none of the "grey" rat snakes have any red pigmentation. And the "albino" (amel) black rat snakes that I used to raise had varying amounts of red pigmentation, so that they ranged from cream color to pale peach, to either of those with a beautiful overlay of orange or red-orange patterns.
Is there a reason this all matters to you? (ie. local legalities or breeding?)
As far as the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSL_tAWNgyg That "appears" to me to be a black rat snake, & the reason there's so much "white" showing is that it's over-fed, & it's scales aren't overlapping very much, as they would normally be. Beyond that, you'd need to get more technical than I can to be sure- & as far as I can tell, that's best left to the scientists with time on their hands.
I do disagree with the gal giving that talk though...if that snake wanted to bite you, it would not feel "like velcro" LOL! You'd feel the teeth real well, you just wouldn't die from it- bites from harmless snakes like rat snakes are not a big deal- they're just not "velcro" either?
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