Very cool. When we lived in rural Tennessee, we had a female black rat who lived in a hole at the base of a split rail fence post in the front yard, right near the gate. Every day she would stretch all 5 feet of herself out on the top rail and bask for hours. She'd go off to hunt field mice, and come back to stretch out and digest her meal. She even laid a clutch of 8 eggs in that hole. We incubated them so the raccoons and other critters wouldn't get them, then released them in the woods behind the house.



What was great is that we had very few unwanted visitors. Word of our "guard snake" spread. People like my sister-in-law would call ahead to make sure she wasn't basking near the gate when she wanted to come over.



rgds,

althea

[ Hide Replies ]

• Black Rat Treehouse - PHWyvern, Wed May 23 20:09:31 2007
• we've heard of bird feeders & bird baths - dustyrhoads, Wed May 23 20:48:21 2007
• RE: we've heard of bird feeders & bird b - PHWyvern, Wed May 23 21:25:26 2007
• RE: we've heard of bird feeders & bird b - Elaphefan, Wed May 23 23:04:18 2007
• RE: Black Rat Treehouse - BillMcgElaphe, Thu May 24 11:58:50 2007
• RE: Black Rat Treehouse - dustyrhoads, Thu May 24 12:37:38 2007
• RE: Black Rat Treehouse - lbrat, Thu May 24 21:10:08 2007
• RE: Black Rat Treehouse - althea, Thu May 24 23:03:44 2007