Posted by:
ratsnakehaven
at Fri Mar 24 04:57:20 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by ratsnakehaven ]
Shane, I look forward to getting more info on this species. At this point I'm only interested from an "understanding the ecology and natural history" point of view. You may be on to something in that they may be more numerous at lower elevations which is definitely worth looking into, but I know they inhabit areas that have cold winters, and at least some that are found at high elevations. There hasn't been too much written about the species. Your last trip to Japan was very productive. I hope you find a lot of these and can fill us in with a more comprehensive view.
When I say "high latitude", I'm merely saying the 30-46 deg. north lat. range of the species is high enough where the snake could adapt to cooler temps. Of course, things are always relative. If I was looking at conspicillatus as a low elevation snake, these latitudes wouldn't be too high at all. Also, like you said, they are adaptable. One island form (Tsu Island), at about 34*n. near South Korea, is an interesting population which I think may be existing at pretty low elevations and isolated, and are rather unique looking. There's a pic in Schulz ('96). But, overall, I think the species is cool adapted, and I think we agree on that now.
It never hurts to discuss things, imo. Someone's going to learn stuff, usually everyone. It's funny, the more I look into the Asian ratsnakes, the more I think about how most of them are cool-adapted. In general they do better with a cooler regime of temps than N. A. ratsnakes. That doesn't mean they don't ever use higher temps though. I had my conspics as high as 82*F, but never used any extra heat with them. I was really surprised when I studied the red-headed ratsnake, moellendorffi. I found that they did best with a four month cool down period (brumation), and they didn't like high temps either. I kept them much as I did the conspics. These are snakes with a range near the tropics.
I don't consider anything I say, or anyone else for that matter, gospel. It's conjecture and all debatable. That conspics are cool adapted is my opinion based on what I know and opinions can change if different information becomes available. I think I make conjectures sometimes and don't give enough reasons why which makes some people question it, which is fine. I'm always happy to tell why I think something if it's important to do that.
I wish you a lot of success in Japan, Shane, and hope you bring us lots of info and nice photos. I probably wouldn't post here at all if I wasn't interested in these types of things. I hope the original poster has learned from our discussion too. Not many would try to keep conspics because of the scarcity of knowledge, and they would need as much help as they could get on that. I think if you could keep E. mandarinus, you certainly could keep conspicillatus. Knowing stuff about mandarinus helps too. Thanks for the discussion...
TC
>>Yep, this merits a new post....I'm waiting on some first-hand experiences from Japan, but at this point my hypothesis is that conspics are probably more numerous in the foothills, between say 200 and 800m. Therefore, I think stereotyping the species as montane is stretching it, but certainly a snake that prefers cooler temps. On the matter of temps, I personally think that many snakes from the semitropics and tropics are kept warmer than necessary. So I suppose you answered your own question in regard to high latitudes?
>>Shane
>>-----
>>Shane's Herp Lifelist
>>http://www.geocities.com/shane77@sbcglobal.net/my_page.html
[ Hide Replies ]
|
RE: Situla, davidi, and conspicillatus.... - ratsnakehaven, Fri Mar 24 04:57:20 2006