snake = null?

In the SnakeGame class, I have declared a variable, private Snake snake; In the createGame method i instantiate a Snake object before calling drawScene.

private void createGame() {
        Snake snake = new Snake(WIDTH / 2, HEIGHT / 2);
        System.out.println("Snake constructed: " + snake);
        drawScene();
    }

The console confirms that there is a Snake object snake: Snake constructed: com.codegym.games.snake.Snake@2f612909 But if I try to print out the snake object in the drawScene method, it does not seem to be available.

private void drawScene() {
        for (int x = 0; x < WIDTH; ++x) {
            for (int y = 0; y < HEIGHT; ++y) {
                setCellColor(y, x, BACKGROUNDCOLOR);
            }
        }
        System.out.println("Snake? : " + snake);
        snake.draw(this);
}

In the console I see: Snake? : null I am a bit confused as to why snake is null from the drawScene method but available from the createGame method. I am probably missing something obvious here.