Last weekend my field partner Will Bird and I spent several days herping in western Ky. On a prior visit in the Spring we came across this large wooden frame with a series of tin sheets nailed to it on an abandoned property. We really like big pieces of artificial cover because they present all sorts of possibilities when it comes to attracting snakes. We moved this large piece to a better location a short distance away where there was a better sun angle in hopes it would produce for us on our next trip to the area. We placed it on a slightly smaller piece of frame work that had been out for some time and was mature with many rodent burrows.

As we lifted the top section and laid it back we found the freshly sloughed skin of an adult rat snake. Under the bottom layer was the rat snake itself. We began photographing it when another snake emerged from a burrow from the outer edge of the larger piece that was on top.

We were soon greeted by this good sized kingsnake that appeared to be several days away from shedding itself. We wondered if the kingsnake may well be making a meal of the rat snake in the days to come. It was interesting to us that once the nearby air was filled with rat snake musk from us handling it for pics the king bolted out of the burrow with its tongue flicking. This is just one interpretation but it was an interesting series of events we thought. After pics both snake were carefully placed back where they were originally positioned. Phil

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